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THE SIN OF JASPER STANDISH 



THE SIN OF 
JASPER STANDISH 


By “RITA” 


Author of “Vanity ** “Kitty,* “Sheba’* 
“ The Good Mrs . Hypocritef Etc . Etc . 



R. F. FENNO & COMPANY 

9 and 1 1 East Sixteenth Street, New York 

ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO., LTD., LONDON 


1902 



/ 


TKF LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Recrived 

SEP, ti 1902 

COPYRIGHT ENTRY 

CLASS CU XXo. No. 



Copyright, 1901 

BY 

R. F. FENNO & COMPANY 


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Tib* Sin 0/ Jasper Standish 


THE SIN OF JASPER STANDISH. 


CHAPTER I. 

There was great talk in the little town of Rath- 
fuvley when it was known that the Hermitage had 
been taken by an English family. 

In the first place the house had been tenantless for 
many years, and was falling into decay and desolation. 
In the next it was never supposed that the Mallorys, 
who were a good old family and only as poor as the 
“ raal gintrv ” of Ireland generally contrive to be, 
would ever demean themselves by letting their ances- 
tral acres to any one else. So when the rumor got 
about, Judy McGee had a good deal to say on the sub- 
ject to her crony Bridget Mooney, who kept the sweet- 
stuff shop at the corner of Slancy Street, and Judy's 
son was a gardener, and was told to keep his eye on the 
situation, for he might be having as good a chance of 
it as any one else. Mrs. Mooney was blessed with a 
daughter christened Honora, a fine strapping girl 
brought up to service, and at present out of employ. 
The English family would no doubt be wanting a house- 
maid, and Honora was advised to be first in the field. 
If one or both of these applicants were successful, there 
would be little doubt but that the whole business, pedi- 
gree, position, and income of the intruders would soon 

7 


8 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

be in the hands of the two most notable gossips in Rath- 
furley. 

The result might prove extremely agreeable to the 
inhabitants of the little town, who of late years had 
had small chance of external interests. 

Though called a town, Rathfurley was little more 
than a village, boasting of one good street and various 
dirty minor branches radiating from the centre of that 
main thoroughfare. It also possessed a market, a bank, 
or rather a branch of a bank, a post-office, and some 
shops. 

The Hermitage, which had once been an abbey, stood 
on a slight wooded eminence, about a couple of miles 
from the town. It overlooked the river, it had exten- 
sive park-like grounds, an orchard and kitchen garden, 
and in summer the roses ran riot everywhere, climbing 
up the gray stone walls, blooming in the wilderness of 
shrubs and brambles, throwing wide arms of glowing 
blossoms across the graveled paths. 

Neglect had in no way discouraged their growth, and 
when the new owner came to look over his purchase it 
presented a picture of color, perfume, and beauty that 
almost atoned for lack of culture. 

The agent’s clerk, who accompanied him, was sur- 
prised at the enthusiasm with which he greeted every- 
thing. But then Tom Reilly had no artistic tastes. 

The new owner decided that the grounds wanted 
“ doing up” only in the form of weeding, grass-cut- 
ting, and pruning. He would have nothing altered, 
no formal beds, no marvels of plots and ornamental 
borders. 

Thus came in Phelim McGee’s chance. Young Reilly 


9 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

had promised to recommend him, and did so. Sir 
Anthony Orcheton took the recommendation with a 
geniality scarcely expected from one of his nation, and 
ordered Phelim and an underling to be turned in on the 
place without delay. 

Inspection of the house proved it a very ancient and 
very beautiful building. 

The hall was square and paneled with oak, the stair- 
case was oak also, and the balustrades were richly 
carved. Doors opened on three sides into the living- 
rooms — drawing, dining room, and library. A thick 
baize swing-door shut off the larger hall from a small 
one leading into the kitchens. A good many repairs 
would be necessary to make the interior habitable, and 
Sir Anthony Orcheton made notes to that effect in his 
pocket-book. By the advice of young Reilly he almost 
decided that local talent should have the work, and 
perform it under his own supervision. 

“Is there a decent hotel where I could stay — I and 
my daughter?” he asked. “We couldn't expect to 
get in here under a couple of months at least.” 

“There's the Rathfurley Arms,” answered Reilly. 
“ It's considered a very fair hotel — not up to Lon- 
don, of course, but I think you would be comfort- 
able.” 

Tom Reilly had once been to London, and gave him- 
self occasional airs on the strength of it. Sir Anthony 
agreed to try the hotel. He asked no particulars as to 
his neighbors, their pursuits or status in the county or 
social proclivities. This greatly surprised young Reilly. 
That any one should wish to settle down in a place like 
the Hermitage without due knowledge of surroundings, 


10 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

or some idea of acceptance from the neighborhood, was 
a fact in no way reconcilable to any previous experience 
of tenants and their ways. 

However, all his hints were unnoticed. Sir Anthony 
evidently didn’t care twopence about hunting or horses, 
or squireens. Indeed as was found out later the worthy 
gentleman was somewhat of a recluse ; by nature studi- 
ous, by good fortune wealthy and blessed with an only 
daughter, whose enthusiasm for everything Irish was 
the result of a school friendship. The school friend 
had asked Lyle on occasional visits, and on one of these 
visits she had heard of the Hermitage, and coaxed her 
father into taking it. He rarely denied her anything. 
He accepted the agent’s statement that the property 
was a good investment, and had now come to complete 
the purchase. 

He was not at all inclined to fault his bargain. The 
situation was beautiful ; the house a fine old pictur- 
esque dwelling, with possibilities of picturesque im- 
provements adapted to modern comfort. Lyle would 
be within a couple of miles or so of her beloved Nora 
Callaghan, and he able to indulge his studious tastes, 
and his favorite pastime of fishing. He was quite con- 
tent, and returned with Tom Reilly to the hotel, to 
inspect its suitability as a temporary home. 

The accounts of all these matters spread rapidly. 
Indeed, no one would have been more astonished than 
Sir Anthony had he heard what was said, known, and 
conjectured of him, in such a remarkably short space 
of time. 

The interest that the Irish of all classes take in the 
concerns of any and every one outside their own imme- 


II 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

diate circle is apparently the one thing that reconciles 
them to existence. 

“ So it’s not a family after all we’re to have, Biddy,” 
said the proud mother of Phelim, the newly-engaged 
gardener. “Just an ouldgintleman and his daughter. 
Well, it’s not much in the way o’ style they’ll be after 
keepin’. Ah glory be ! The ould days are gone in- 
tirely. Only a trap or two ; that’s what young Mr. Tom 
was sayin’. No hunters ; a quiet cob and aridin’ horse 
for the young lady. The likes o’ that ! And thim 
grand stables goin’ to waste.” 

“ Maybe they’ll be havin’ more by and by, Judy, 
woman,” said her crony. “Though why in thewurrld 
you’re makin’ sich a hullaballoo about it bates me in- 
tirely. Is it yer whole fam’ly you expect to be placin’ 
there ? Why, it’s blessin’ the saints ye ought to be for 
Phelim’s good luck ; but I see you’re after gettin’ Pat 
in as stable-help now he’s lost his place at Mount 
Urris.” 

Mrs. Judy McGee tossed her head with conscious 
virtue. “ Me, is it ? Speak for yerself, ma’am. 
Maybe there’s yer sister Mary’s two boys, that’s as at 
home with horses as if they’d been foaled in a -stable. 
That’s what yer manin’.” 

“ And small blame to me, if I had me eye on thim 
same. Isn’t Mary Murphy as dacint an’ hard-working 
a widdy woman as you’ll meet any day between this 
and County Meath ? And six childer to provide for, 
the poor craythur ! But there’s people in this 
wurrld as thinks the saints has only their consarns at 
heart.” 

Judy McGee bridled visibly at so pointed an insinua- 


12 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

tion, and the conversation drifted into personalities 
more or less hostile Just as the affairs of a past gener- 
ation came up for judgment, and the argument prom- 
ised excitement to a listening crowd, the tongues sud- 
denly ceased. There had come a clatter of hoofs up the 
stony street, and the rider drew rein before the little 5 
shop. 

“Whisht, woman!” muttered Judy warningly. 
“ It's the inspector himself.” 

All faces turned to the figure sitting so lightly and 
easily on the beautiful Irish mare, and curtsies and 
greetings came from all sides. He gave but curt re- 
sponse. 

“ Have any of you seen Mickey Doolan ? ” he asked. 

“ Was he this way at all ? ” 

“No, yer honor,” came universal response. 

“Ah, well, if you should see him, ask him to drop in 
this evening. Fve something for him to do.” 

He nodded carelessly to the group and rode off. 

“Now what’s he wanting Mickey for?” chorused 
inquisitive voices. 

“ A bit o’ poachin’, may be.” 

“ Poachin’ ! Ah ! thin ’tis you have the black thought 
av ivery one, Moll Cassidy. What should he want him 
that way for at all, at all ? Maybe it’s some bizness he’ll 
be after getting the boy to do for him. Not the first 
time neither.” 

“In the name av ivery saint that iver wore a crown 
o’ glory, what’s put that iday into yer head, woman ?” 
asked Mrs. McGee. “Sure his honor has thim as 
can do his bizness for him better than Mickey any day ! 
Indade, there’s quare things and quare people as Mister 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 13 

Inspector has to do with. Not that I’d be sayin’ the 
bad wurrd av iny one ; only there’s somethin’ about 
that same gintleman I niver did feel was quite as it 
should be. Oh ! I’ll not be namin’ anything. A 
close mouth is as good as a priest’s blessing any day.” 

“Thin it’s not many blessin’s hare come your way, 
Judy,” said Mrs. Cassidy, with fine irony. 

“ Arrah now, Moll, don’t ye be so contumashus. It’s 
well ye know how to kape a saycret, whether it’s yer 
own, or anyone else’s. And Mr. Standish, for all the 
handsome face av him, and the way he has wid the 
girls, is none just too honest or too safe-dalin’. There’s 
thim as can see wid one eye more than others wid 
two.” 

“ Sure, you’ll be killin’ us wid curiosity intirely, Mrs. 
McGee. Maybe as ye know so much ye’ll tell us why 
Mrs. Grapnel] at the Bank House is so mighty close ? 
’Tis she who goes about wid the high head and the 
silent tongue av yer looking for saycret-keepers. 
There’s a mighty power av throuble, if not worse, behind 
that tight mouth av hers, or my name’s not what 
ivery one takes it for.” 

“ I never could get at the rights av that,” observed 
Biddy Mooney. “Why a nice pleasant-spoken gintle- 
man like Mister Callaghan should be after takin’ an 
Englishwoman into his sarvice, bates me.” 

“Sure it was Miss Nora’s idea intirely. When she 
went to school in England to git the grand talk and 
fine wurrd s av thim sort o’ gintry as comes trapyzin’ 
over the counthry, she was so taken up wid English 
ways an’ English company her own payple weren’t good 
enough for her any more.” 


14 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ ’Twas only a couple o’ years she was over there/ 5 
observed another voice. 

“ An’ it’s plinty can be done and larned in a couple 
o’ year, let me tell you, Sally. And didn’t Patsey Fin- 
nigan give the wurrd that Miss Nora was set on bring- 
in’ a ‘ proper English sarvint ’ back wid her ? That’s the 
truth av it.” 

“ An’ now ’tis English gintry we’re to have at the 
Hermitage. Glory be ! We shan’t be knowin’ our- 
selves soon.” 

“ Castles failin’. Indade that’s thrue for ye,” 
lamented Judy McGee. “ Poor ould Ireland isn’t what 
it was at all, at all. Not but what it’s a stroke of luck 
my boy’s gettin’ the gardener’s place wid the new pay- 
pie, an he’ll work in Patrick too, or I’ll be axin’ the 
rayson why.” 

“ Yes, an’ Honora. Don’t ye forgit her, Judy.” 

“ Arrah thin, it’s small chance ye’d be givin’ me to 
do that same, Bridget Mooney. But it’s bringin’ their 
own sarvints they’ll be, I’m thinkin’.” 

“English sarvints niver stay long in Ireland,” re- 
marked Mrs. Cassidy sententiously. “ ’Tis thinkin’ 
we’re all Faynians and murderers they’ll be.” 

“ Ah thin, let thim stay in their own counthry. 
We’re none too anxious for their company, or their 
mane ways, or their outlandish talk.” 

“ What’s made the English gintleman buy the 
property at all ?” inquired Mrs. Mooney sud- 
denly. 

“ Divil knows. That’s what we’ve got to find out, 
Biddy woman. And it’s the luck that’s in it me own 
boy getting in at once to the place. He’s rare and 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 15 

quick wid his ears an’ his sinses. He’ll not be long 
puttin’ things togither. ” 

“He’s his own mother’s son at that,” said Mol] Cas- 
sidy, who had gloomy moments when her speech was 
apt to become ironical and home-thrusting. 

“ And none the worse for that, I’m hopin’, Mrs. Cas- 
sidy,” responded that same mother sharply. “ It’s a 
hard day for a poor woman who’s done her best for her 
family to be bearin’ that takin’ after herself is accounted 
a sin or a shame to thim. Maybe yer own childer will 
be the dacenter for goin’ agin nature. It’s sorra a one 
av thim fay vors yer man in looks, or yerself in manners. 
As for Larry, the omadhaun, wasn’t he stalin’ the 
eggs ay me one black hen before me own two eyes a week 
ago come Sunday whin he thought I was at mass ? ” 

“Arrah, shame to ye, Judy McGee, for a lyin’- 
tongued, ill- judgin’ woman. The poor boy was only 
after nailin’ up the broken palin’ ay yer hen-house, as 
were a livin’ disgrace to the naybors.” 

“ Disgrace is it ! You’ll be takin’ back that wurrd 
wid yer own tongue in the inside av two seconds, Mrs. 
Cassidy, or I’ll be tachift’you the manin’ av manners.” 

“Whisht ! whisht ! woman ; givin’ the place a bad 
name afore strangers. Can’t you see who’s cornin’ 
down the street ? ” 

It was Biddy Mooney who spoke. A11 instant hush 
fell on the excited group. All eyes turned in one 
direction. 

Coming slowly along, her head held high, her somber 
eyes gazing straight before her, was the person they 
had been discussing — Jane Grapnel], housekeeper at 
the Bank. 


CHAPTER II. 


Entire ignorance or indifference to the Irish precept 
that every one’s business is the individual’s business, 
had kept Jane Grapnell in a perfectly equable frame of 
mind towards her neighbors, or those enterprising shop- 
keepers who had managed to secure the Bank custom. 

Her master had been appointed only a twelvemonth 
to the position of manager at Rathfurley. She had 
been scarcely that time in his service. It was quite 
true, as the gossips had said, that Nora Callaghan had 
brought this woman with her from England, but the 
housekeeper’s own anxiety to come to the country was 
chiefly responsible for that action. 

Jane Grapnell had held a situation in the school 
where Nora and her friend, Lyle Orcheton, were finish- 
ing their education. A grim, silent woman, a woman 
never popular with her fellow-servants, it had been a 
matter of surprise to Nora Callaghan that she should 
display so much devotion to herself. But she liked 
the woman and appreciated her trustworthy nature, 
and the thoroughly conscientious method of her work. 
It struck her that she would be of inestimable value 
in her maiden efforts at housekeeping, and finding 
Jane was as willing to enter her service as she was to 
have her, the arrangement was concluded forthwith. 

Jane Grapnell soon proved herself deserving of her 
16 


1 7 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

young mistress’s appreciation. She relieved her of 
all responsibility while ostensibly consulting her on 
all occasions. She was clever, capable and economical. 
If her reserve and habits of discipline met with little 
favor in the eyes of her fellow-servants, they were 
adequately appreciated by her master and mistress. 
Except to Nora, however, Jane Grapnell maintained 
the same cold evenness of manner. She made no 
friends, rarely went out, except on household matters, 
and was never known to do more than “ pass the time 
o’ day ” with the ever alert gossips of the little town. 

As she passed the group round Judy McGee’s shop 
on this eventful morning, she noted that some unusual 
excitement prevailed. 

She never flinched before the fire of curious eyes, 
nor the semi-audible whispers that echoed to her pass- 
ing steps. She was too much engrossed by her own 
thoughts to heed what was said of her. These people 
had no part in her life, nor interest for her mind. 
They would not have believed such a thing possible, 
but it was true, and to its truth she owed her unpop- 
ularity. 

“ Bad cess to her for a proud, stuck-up doxy,” mut- 
tered Judy, whose friendly overtures had never yet re- 
ceived any recognition. “ ’Tis an ill look she wears, 
and a hard bed she’ll have to lie on before her last 
hour comes.” 

“ I wonder what’s at the back av her now ?” added 
Moll Cassidy. 

“ Something mighty quare, or may I niver read the 
cast av an eye,” said Bridget Mooney. 

“ It’s wondering I am whatever Miss Nora conld see 
2 


i8 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

in the woman to take up wid her so,” chimed in Sally 
Rooney. 

And then, giving temporary burial to the hatchet of 
war that had been so imminent, they went tooth and nail 
for Jane Grapnell’s character, deeds, and morals. That 
she came off badly goes without saying to any one ac- 
quainted with the Irish penalties for an unbreakable 
reserve. 

Meanwhile the object of discussion went on her way, 
called at the shops, gave her orders, and finally walked 
off in the direction of the Hermitage. 

Once out of the town and the gaze of curious eyes, 
her face relaxed from its austerity. The set lines 
softened into weariness the curves of the mouth were 
more sad than bitter. It was no common face, this of 
the much-discussed woman. Power, strength, suffer- 
ing, patience, all spoke out in its tense expression. A 
woman with a history, and a history tragic and pain- 
filled ; a woman who could endure long, but forgive 
never. 

She walked swiftly along the white even road, where 
the autumn leaves were already scattered. “ Across 
the fields ” gave a short cut to her destiny, and she 
took it as if it was well known to her. 

Coming at last to a lane heavily screened by trees 
and thick brushwood, she paused. Before her was 
a small gray stone house, shut off from the lane by a 
palisade and hedge of laurels. A garden rich with 
autumn coloring spread on either side the narrow path. 
At the back of the house was a rough stable and poultry 
run, and the almost inevitable pig-sty. 

Externally the dwelling-place looked more preten- 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 19 

tious than it was. It really only consisted of five rooms 
and a kitchen. One of the rooms was a sort of office on 
the ground floor, with a grained-glass window that was 
an effective obstacle to curious eyes. 

This was the house of Jasper Standish, the county 
inspector of Rathfurley — a position of no small impor- 
tance in Ireland, though it possesses little to English 
minds. In the former country the position can only 
be held by a man of education, ability, and social dis- 
tinction. He is as far removed from the accepted idea 
of “ policeman ” as our Tommy Atkins is from the 
officer who commands him. 

Jasper Standish had secured the appointment with 
some difficulty, and not without a large amount of in- 
fluence to back him up. But he was both clever and 
fascinating, and gifted with brilliant brains as well as 
a handsome face. He was wonderfully popular in 
Rathfurley. He was also ambitious, and entirely with- 
out scruples as to how he worked for that ambition. 

It was before this man’s house that Jane Grapnell 
was standing lost in thought. With her English ideas, 
it had seemed strange that Standish should be on terms 
of equality with her master’s household, dining there 
perpetually, playing cards whenever the old gentleman 
wanted a game, singing Irish songs in a rich baritone 
to Miss Nora’s accompaniment, riding by her side if by 
chance they met, as not infrequently happened. 

All this set Jane wondering. It also occasioned her 
much concern. For she passionately loved her lovely 
young mistress, and almost as passionately — and with- 
out any positive reason — disliked Mr. Jasper Standish. 

Such antipathies are wholly inexplicable by any rule 


20 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

of common sense. They may be sent as a warning, or 
simply aroused by the innate antagonism of thoroughly 
opposed natures. Yet those who have known and dis- 
regarded them, have sometimes lived to regret that dis- 
regard. Those who believe in occult force sufficiently 
to let instinct guide where reason stumbles, have, in 
like manner, lived to be thankful for a warning uttered 
through sealed senses, but none the less important. 

Something almost akin to morbid curiosity led Jane 
to examine the appearance and extent of the “ Gray 
Lodge,” as it was called. 

What there could be about the Lodge and its occu- 
pant to interest this morose and silent woman was a 
secret to all outside herself, but certain it is that from 
the first moment her eyes had fallen on Jasper Standish, 
she had been morbidly curious about everything con- 
cerning that gentleman. 

She stood there so long and so silently that the birds 
hopped and twittered around her motionless figure 
without apparent notice. The leaves dropped at her 
feet as the wind sighed through the boughs. A vague 
melancholy tinged the scene — the melancholy with 
which the dying year parts from all the bloom and 
beauty of her summer prime. 

Here this man she so distrusted lived alone, with an 
old woman as servant and her grandson as groom, 
stable-boy, and gardener combined. He kept up no 
“ style,” but the stables were occupied by a couple of 
horses that would have been hard to beat for breed, 
speed, and staying powers. 

The woman looked up at last. A footstep had 
roused her. Beside her stood a small, impish-looking 


21 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

youth, neither boy nor man. His quick, ferret-like 
eyes were alert with mischief and curiosity. 

“ Is it his honor yer wantin’, ma’am ?” he inquired, 
as he peered up at Jane Grapnell’s face. 

She started and drew slightly away. “ No,” she said 
hurriedly — “no ; I don’t want him.” 

“ Thin it’s a dale av interest yer after takin’ in his 
property. Maybe it’s wantin’ to buy it ye are. Sure 
it’s a tidy bit ay a place, but it’s not for sale just yet. 
The masther’s got a lease av it for two hundred and 
ninety-nine years, or thereabouts.” 

His impish eyes twinkled. He, like most of the 
poorer folk in Kathfurley, knew Mrs. Grapnell as the 
English housekeeper at the Bank House, and was well 
disposed to take a “ rise ” out of her when opportunity 
offered. Her dark, stern eyes glanced at him with a 
silent disdain of his poor witticism. 

“ Are you in his service ? ” she asked. 

“ Thrue for ye, ma’am, I am. Errand boy and 
giniral help. I’m not living in the establishment, so 
to say. Me name’s Doolan — Mickey Doolan. Maybe 
ye know it. It’s me father has the big mate stall in 
the market, where ye gits yer joints.” 

“ Oh,” she said vaguely, “ is it ? Then why don’t 
you work for your father instead of for Mr. Stan- 
dish ?” 

“Work for him? Why, he just leathered the life 
out of me as long as I did. So I took to independ- 
ence ; and it suits me a mighty dale better.” 

“ But I thought ” 

“ Oh, yer mindin’ what I said about messenger and 
errand boy to Mister Standish. Sure, that’s jist the 


: 22 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

jokin’ way ay me. I gets an odd job now an’ thi»n’ 
mostly in the way ay pickin’ up news, an’ helpin’ 
him a bit wid information as to poachin’ an’ sich 
like.” 

Jane Grapnell’s usual reserve seemed to have de- 
serted her to-day. Her face was almost eager as she 
turned to the boy. 

“ Information ! Then of course you know about 
the cases at the police-court — criminals and offend- 
ers ? ” 

“ It’s mighty clever ye are to guess that ! ” said the 
youth, with mock admiration. “ I won’t be sayin’ it 
to praise meself, but there’s many a poor divil I’ve 
laid by the heels ; an’ whin Mister Standish has the 
hard job before him, it’s Mickey Doolan does most av 
the work, unbeknown to thim as is wanted. Ye un- 
derstand ? ” 

She looked at him with a sort of eager interest. An 
informer ; a spy ; a creature who might be bribed to 
do any humiliating, dirty work. 

So he stood self-confessed. Yet the silent, reserved 
woman, who made no friends, who “held her head so 
high,” who was accounted a model of discretion, 
actually displayed more interest in this disreputable 
being than in the virtues and goodwill of a Mrs. McGee, 
or a Biddy Mooney. 

She put a series of cautious questions to the youth ; 
questions so strange that they seemed to have no possible 
connection with herself. It putezled Mickey some- 
what, but his odd mixture of lies and truths were ut- 
tered with a disarming frankness that would have al- 
most won the faith of one of his own countrymen. 


23 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

Jane Grapnell, however, had too large an element of 
caution in her nature to be readily deceived. She was 
working for an object, and she knew she must not be 
too particular as to the tools she employed. She sifted 
Mickey’s exaggerations with a skill of which he was 
unconscious. 

At the close of their conversation she presented him 
with half a crown. He looked from it to her with a 
face expressive of complete bewilderment, then pocketed 
it swiftly, and touched his ragged cap with the first 
sign of respect he had shown her. 

“ Sure, an* av it’s any further conversayshun ye’d 
be after wantin’ wid me, I’m at your service, ma’am. 
It seems a mighty profitable sort av a thing,” he said, 
with a grin of appreciation. 

“I may want you again, Mickey,” she said. 
“ Where are you to be found ? ” 

“ Mostly down by Cronin’s public,” he answered. 
“ Or shall I be givin’ a call at the Bank House for ye, 
odd times ? ” 

“No, no,” she said quickly; “don’t come there. 
I’ll let you know if I need you.” 

She drew down her veil, and walked quickly away. 
He watched her, his eyes twinkling. 

“ What is it she’s manin’, at all, at all ? ” he mut- 
tered. “Is it a thafe or a murderer that she’s thrack- 
ing ? And so mighty grand as ivery one thought she 
was; and not a ‘good day’ hardly passing her lips. 
Well, divil take me, but ’tis yerself’s in luck to-day, 
Mickey boy ; an’ yer company an honor to be paid for, 
so it is. Well, she can have plinty av it at the same 
price, if the fancy takes her. And sorra a wurrd av 


24 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

this bizness passes me lips to Mister Standish. It’s 
none too fond he is av partin’ wid his half-crowns, or 
sixpences either. Sure, it’s himself cornin’. What’s 
the dirty work Mickey Doolan’s to do for him now ? ” 


CHAPTER III. 


When - Sir Anthony decided that the hotel would 
suit him well enough he sent for his daughter Lyle. 

Here, however, feminine opposition came into play. 
Nora entreated that her friend should stay with her 
at the Bank House, while the Hermitage was being 
pat into order, and Lyle on her arrival backed up the 
entreaties of her friend successfully. Her father gave 
in, and the two girls rejoiced in unlimited freedom 
and renewed companionship. 

There was enough likeness of character and dis- 
similarity of nature between the Irish and English girl 
to give that salt of contrast to their friendship which 
is at once a test and a tie. Nora had all the warm- 
heartedness and vivacity of her nation, Lyle Orcheton 
the softness and strength, the temerity and straight- 
forwardness of hers. She was more reserved than Nora, 
and less apt to make friends, but also she was truer- 
hearted and more courageous. Her affections, if 
slower to win, were more durable when once bestowed. 
Nora’s flirtations were numerous ; Lyle’s reserve shut 
out anything so frivolous as meaningless attentions. 
Yet with so much difference and divergence the two 
girls were deeply attached to one another. 

They had much in common. Both were motherless, 
both were only children. A limited home circle left 

25 


26 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

them with much outlying force of affection to bestow. 
Nora gave her friend the largest share, but still had 
plenty to dispose of. Lyle, on the other hand, concen- 
trated most of her love on this bright and lovely and 
most winning creature, and gave her second place in 
her warm, deep heart. Her father ranked first, but he 
held for her elements of responsibility and considera- 
tion by reason of his studious habits, his mild absent- 
mindedness, and his manlike helplessness in all do- 
mestic matters. 

She satisfied herself that he was perfectly comfort- 
able and well looked after at the hotel before yielding 
to Nora’s eager persuasions. He also had a general 
invitation to the Bank House from the genial Tom 
Callaghan, so that he and his daughter would not be 
much apart. 

The first morning after her arrival Lyle and Nora 
rode over to the Hermitage. Nora gave up her own 
little mare “ Heartsease ” to her friend, and took her 
father’s mount for herself. She could ride anything, 
and her love of horses was almost a passion. 

The morning was lovely— cool, balmy, rain-washed ; 
the sky an arc of Irish sapphire, the woods a blaze of 
gold and emerald and russet brown. To be young and 
healthy and heart-free on such a day, and mounted for 
a rousing gallop, was to taste something of the joy of 
living. 

The girls made a 1 picture that the township appre- 
ciated as they trotted down the main street. It was 
market day, and vehicles were many and strange, and 
droves of sheep and pigs seemed contesting the “ right 
o’ way ” with foot passengers. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 27 

“ You seem to know every one, Nora,” said her 
friend as they drew rein, and walked their horses. 

“ It's rather a case of every one knowing me, my 
dear. That’s the penalty of my father’s daughter’s 
position. There’s Judy McGee at her shop door. I 
must speak to her a minute, or she’ll never forgive me. 
She’s dying to see you, I’m sure.” 

They drew up before a curtsying figure and in- 
specting eyes. Lyle gave gracious response, but did 
not find the conversation absorbingly interesting. 
Certainly it was varied, diverging from the laying 
qualities of the black hen to the measles of Mrs. Mc- 
Grath’s youngest grandchild, and taking in by the way 
such little matters as the widow Murphy’s newly mar- 
ried daughter’s twins, and the curiously bad quality of 
the potatoes sold at Danny MacGuire’s shop. When 
these subjects had been discussed long enough to leave 
behind a faithful photograph of the young stranger’s 
face, figure, eyes, hair, and the color and fit of her 
habit as well as the fact of her having borrowed Miss 
Nora’s own mare, they were permitted to ride on their 
way. 

“ Funny people, aren’t we ?” said Nora. “I often 
wonder how we strike English folk on a first acquaint- 
ance.” 

“ I know how you struck me,” said Lyle. “ That 
was when you lived at Derry, you remember ; and I 
spent my first holidays with you.” 

“Yes. You told me your opinion, and we nearly 
had a quarrel. However, you understand us better, or 
will — once you live among us. Oh ! there’s Mrs. Brady 
O’Neil, Lyle. I wonder if she’ll stop. I’d like to in- 


28 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

troduce you. It’s her nephew, you know, who had the 
Hermitage, and was obliged to sell it owing to debts. 
She’s your neighbor. A charming woman, and gives 
such parties ! Yes, she’s stopping the carriage.” 

“ Ah ! Nora,” said a cheery voice, “it’s a longtime 
since I’ve seen yon. I declare I thought you’d gone 
to England again. Your English friend, did you say ? 
Delighted to meet you. Miss Orcheton. We shall be 
neighbors, you know, once you come to the Hermitage. 
But I suppose that won’t be for some time. It must be 
sadly out of repair. Derrick, poor boy, could not do 
anything for the place. Why, when he came of age 
’twas nothing but debts he found for heritage — his 
own, and other people’s.” 

She broke off with a laugh. 

Lyle looked at her with pardonable curiosity. She 
was a handsome, florid woman of about forty-five ; alert, 
breezy, good-tempered, with very bright eyes and an 
ever-ready smile. A general favorite, and sufficiently 
well off to be of use to the county, as well as popular 
in it. 

“ So you’re staying with Nora,” she went on. “ Well 
that’s nicer for you than the hotel. You must come 
round to me on Tuesday next. Just a few friends. 
You know, Nora. All young people. A hand at cards 
and a waltz or two for those who like. Mr. Standish 
has promised to come. There’s not his equal for a 
partner miles around — as you ought to know, Miss 
Nora.” 

She shot a glance of meaning at the pretty Irish girl 
who tried to look unconscious. 

“We shall be very pleased to come, Mrs. O’Neil,” she 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 29 

said. “ At least I shall, and I’m sure Miss Orcheton 
won’t say no. She’s as fond of dancing as myself.” 

“ I’m glad of that,” said the genial lady. “ I love 
young people about me, and the pair of you will be an 
acquisition to the county. Yes ; and there’ll be some 
broken hearts before long, or I’m much belying my 
countrymen. Well, I mustn’t be keeping you. Re- 
member me to your father, Nora, and don’t you be for- 
getting Tuesday — eight o’clock. Good-by.” 

The carriage drove off, and again the girls proceeded 
on their way. 

“ Who is Mr. Standish, Nora ? ” asked Lyle, after a 
short silence. 

The girl colored faintly. “ He’s the County In- 
spector,” she answered. 

“ Oh ! ” said Lyle, somewhat doubtfully. “ A — 
gentleman ? ” 

“ Of course, my dear. The Irish constabulary rank 
here with the military. It’s quite different from Eng- 
land. Mr. Standish is of good family, and goes every- 
where, He is very popular, besides being as handsome 
a man as you’d wish to see.” 

“ I don’t care for handsome men,” said Lyle curtly. 
“ They’re always conceited.” 

“ Well, Jasper Standish isn’t that.” 

“ You seem to think a great deal of him, Nora ? ” 

“ Not more than of any other man. My fairy prince 
hasn’t come this way yet, my dear.” 

“ Doesn’t it seem strange, Nora,” said Lyle, after 
the silence which a sharp trot had engendered, “ that 
we two are here, riding together, life just beginning 
for us, and somewhere in the world — where we don’t 


30 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

know — there may be two men waiting for us, ready to 
lay their hearts at our feet ? They don't know us, we 
don’t know them ; but Fate will bring them when the 
hour is ripe, and all the world will change for us from 
that hour.” 

Nora’s brilliant face paled suddenly. “ From that 
hour!” she echoed. “ Don’t you think, Lyle, that 
love is unconscious at first — that the change may be 
there long before we realize it ? ” 

“ I can’t say. What do we know ? Books may be 
deceiving us. Our experience has all to come.” 

“Well, I’m not going to take it too seriously,” 
laughed Nora. “ I want to enjoy life before I settle 
down to marriage. Somehow, Lyle, when I look round 
and watch married people, it seems as if they had 
mostly got wrong partners, had the wrong cards dealt 
them, like a bad hand at whist. Lovers who are all 
devotion, miserable if a day parted them, can bear the 
separations of married life better than its unity. There’s 
that pretty little Mrs. O’Rourke, for instance. She 
and Danny O’Rourke certainly made a love match if 
ever there was one. She went out to India with him. 
He had an appointment in one of the north-west prov- 
inces. A couple of years passed, and she came home. 
Now she’s living with her mother, and as pretty as ever, 
but the way she flirts and carries on — why, you’d think 
she had no husband at all. Two years — and such a 
change ! Is love worth no more than that ? ” 

Lyle’s face took a deeper gravity. 

“ I think,” she said, “ girls are rather unfairly used. 
We are given an idealized picture of men, and then left 
to find out the reality. We cannot meet them on 


3i 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

equal ground, or be on any terms of intimacy without 
being accused of flirting, or allowing them to suppose 
that we expect a declaration. It is all quite wrong. 
If there were no outsiders to interfere, to draw false 
conclusions, or hint at expected results, we might come 
to a far better understanding before taking the all 
important step.” 

“ You are quite right,” agreed Nora eagerly. “ Were 
you thinking of Mrs. O’Neil’s remark ? ” 

“ Yes. I shouldn’t let it worry me if I were you, 
Nora.” 

“ My dear, I don’t intend to. Jasper Standish is 
not a marrying man. He is too poor. I have no 
money. Dear old dad has only his salary to keep 
things going comfortably. We are very good — friends. 
That is all.” 

Lyle glanced quickly at the downcast eyes, the waver- 
ing color. A little touch of fear chilled her heart. 
Was it all ? Did nothing underlie that word 
(i friends ”? She had read that a man and a girl must 
needs be something more, or something less, than 
that. But she never asked a confidence that was not 
spontaneous, and the subject dropped. 

They found Phelim McGee and his young brother 
and a third “help” hard at work on the pruning and 
grass-cutting that Sir Anthony had directed. The 
girls dismounted and left their horses in charge of the 
ubiquitous Phelim, and then Lyle opened the door with 
the key the agent had given to Sir Anthony’s charge, 
and she and Nora commenced a tour of investigation. 

They were in raptures over the possibilities of the 
lovely old hall, with its oak panels and Italian ceiling. 


32 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

They threw open long-closed shutters and let the 
golden wealth of sunshine into the rooms ; they ex- 
plored every nook and corner, decided on renovations 
and furniture, most of which was coming from Eng- 
land, apportioned the various bed and dressing-rooms, 
and were alternately practical and enthusiastic. 

“ Oh ! I wish it were all ready and we were coming 
in to-morrow ! ” exclaimed Lyle, after a final decision 
as to which room was always to be reserved for her 
friend, so that she might go or stay at her own sweet 
will. 

“ You’ll have to wait for a good many to-morrows 
I’m thinking, if your father employs Rathfurley 
labor,” answered Nora. “ An Irish workman will do 
anything — except hurry. If you’ll take my advice, 
have a Dublin firm to do all you want, and do it by 
contract. Then you may get in this side of Christ- 
mas.” 

“ What ! Not for two months ! Why, there’s very 
little to do.” 

“ Papering, painting, roof, repairs,” enumerated 
Nora, whose eye was more business-like than her 
friend’s. “Mind, you’ll be coming in at a bad time. 
Our winters are mostly rainy, and it’s been unoccupied 
so long that it may be damp.” 

They were standing at the window of a room facing 
south, with a lovely peep of the river winding its way 
though distant woods in the full glory of autumn color- 
ing. It was a quaint-shaped room, ending in a turret, 
and the window was lancet-shaped with small leaded 
panes. Lyle had decided she would have it for 
herself as a study and retreat. She turned from the 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 33 

window to look over available space, and furnish it with 
imaginary comforts and girlish possessions. Here 
should stand a bookcase, there a couch, her writing 
table must stand by the window, her easel 

Suddenly she shivered where she stood in the warm 
sunlight. Her eyes went from the room within to the 
scene without. The woods were thick with leaf and 
song, the hedges still held autumn treasures, rose- 
scented and fragrant, doves cooed in the boughs in 
faint caressive notes, the west wind blew soft fragrance 
through the open casement by which she leaned. 
Everything spoke of peace and beauty, and yet — how 
explain that odd, strange feeling which had come upon 
her ? 

“ How pale you look ! " exclaimed Nora suddenly. 
“ Whatever is the matter ? Why, Lyle, dearest, you're 
shaking all over ! " 

The girl put her hand to her forehead in a bewil- 
dered way. 

“Yes, I know. I can't explain. Only somehow, 
Nora, something tells me I shall be terribly unhappy 
in this room." 

“Lyle!" 

“ I can't say why. It just came — the feeling — the 
sensation." 

“ It is very strange. Now if it had been my expe- 
rience, I could have accounted for it. We Irish are so 
superstitious, but you " 

“ I'm not, a bit. And yet this has happened to me. 
What shall I do, Nora ? Laugh at it, defy it, or put 
it to the test ? Perhaps something has happened in 
this room— -something dreadful." 

3 


34 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“Oh, don’t,” said Nora, shuddering. “You’ll be 
saying next the place is haunted.” 

“ It is haunted by some sadness, some misfortune. 
The shadow passed over me.” 

She drew herself up. Her eyes gleamed. “ I’ll not 
be put off my intentions. I never did believe in pre- 
sentiments. Nora, I’ll defy this one.” 


CHAPTER IV. 


Quiet and subdued, Nora Callaghan followed her 
friend down the broad staircase, where faded and an- 
cient tapestry still hung on the walls, down and into 
the great hall which they had already furnished in 
fancy, and so on to the terrace that lay before the 
curious pointed windows with their lancet panes. The 
view from here was magnificent, and the two girls 
stood side by side drinking in the glorious freshness 
and sunshine ; the scents of fresh moist earth and late 
roses. Myrtle and trailing wistaria had climbed up the 
portals and window-frames ; yine-like tendrils swayed 
in the breeze, and amidst the thick ivy birds had nested 
and sheltered for long untroubled years. 

Gradually the shadow of that strange presentiment 
faded. The natural joyousness of youth responded 
to the call of Nature. Once more the light talk 
rippled, the girlish laughter sounded. The next thing 
was to explore the grounds, which sloped gradually 
down to the river. Here they discovered an old boat- 
house and a dilapidated punt. 

“ We must have a boat,” said Lyle. “ I learnt to 
row last summer when we were at Colwyn Bay. An 
old fisherman taught me.” 

“ How lovely ! ” exclaimed Nora, with rapture. 
“ You’ll teach me too, won't you, darling ? ” 

35 


4 


36 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“Of course.” Then she laughed softly. “ ‘ Thy 
people shall be my people and my ways thy ways.’ 
There’s an appropriate misquotation for you. And 
now I suppose we had better return. It will be dad’s 
luncheon time, and I promised to be there and give him 
the program of necessary alterations.” 

“ Tell him to have workmen from Dublin, or you’ll 
be a year waiting to get in,” said Xora. “You’re 
bringing your own furniture, are you not ?” 

“All the old things — oak, pictures, silver, books. 
But we shall require a good deal more.” 

“ How lovely it will be, choosing and buying and 
arranging it ! Your father is such an old dear. He 
lets you do just what you like.” 

“ Oh, but his taste is perfect. He won’t let me get 
anything unsuitable. He wants the Hermitage to be 
semi-mediaeval.” 

Then they beckoned the waiting Phelim, and re- 
mounting their horses, rode back to the town. 

“You won’t be far from police supervision,” said 
Kora, pointing with her whip to the chimneys of the 
Gray Lodge, as they showed through the trees. “ That 
is where Mr. Standish lives.” 

Lyle’s eyes followed the direction indicated with 
some curiosity. 

“I feel rather interested in that man,” she re- 
marked. 

“You are sure to see him soon,” said Kora. “ He 
is always about. In any case, there is Tuesday coming. 
Mrs. O’Keil’s little parties are delightful ; she is the 
soul of hospitality and kindness. She is very popular 
hereabouts.” 


37 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ Any history ?” 

Nora laughed. “Ah! I see you are catching it. 
Yes, there is a history. A bad husband who ran away 
and died abroad. An only son also dead ; drowned in 
this very river, Lyle. Poor woman, she has had her 
troubles, they say. However, she seems jolly enough 
now. She’s of very good family. She was a Miss 
Brady, of Riverstown. She calls herself Mrs. Brady 
O’Neil formally. . . . Oh, my dear, here is Mr. Stan- 
dish. Shall I introduce you, or just pass on ?” 

“ No, don’t stop.” 

In an aftertime, dark with horrors and heavy with 
trouble as yet unguessed, Lyle Orcheton remembered 
that her first instinct with regard to this man had been 
one of avoidance — her next, one of distrust : and yet as 
she cantered easily past and met the quick flash of his 
dark blue eyes, she confessed to herself she had never 
seen so handsome a face. 

A bow from Nora, a brief “Good morning, Miss 
Callaghan,” and he had passed them. 

A blushing face drooped consciously before the gaze 
of two questioning eyes. 

“Ah, Nora,” said the English girl gently, “has the 
romance begun, my dear ? ” 

The blush faded as quickly as it had come. 

“ Nonsense ! ” she said petulantly. “ Why, I scarce- 
ly know him.” 

Lyle shook her graceful head. “ Juliet knew 
nothing of Romeo ; yet she gave him herself, her 
life.” 

“ I should not be quite so ready to part with either 
as that heroine of Shakspere’sJ’ 


38 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

s< Irish people are full of romance. It is an inherit- 
ance of your country — your clime — your history. He 
is wonderfully handsome, ” she added irrelevantly. 

Nora laughed. “ I told you that. I’m glad you 
agree with me.” 

“ All the same,” continued Lyle gravely, “ he awoke 
a sort of ‘ I do not like thee. Dr. Fell,’ instinct on my 
part.” 

“ In that second ? Nonsense, Lyle ? You hardly 
looked at him. ” 

“ Yet I could describe him accurately. Features 
delicately correct ; eyes dark blue, full lids inclined to 
droop ; straight nose, almost too fine ; and lips heavy 
and full-colored. Cruel lips, Nora. The dark mus- 
tache has a duty to perform; it keeps their secret. He 
wonld be a tyrant if opportunity offered, and — I would 
never trust him.” 

“ It’s quite impossible you can read a person’s char- 
acter in a single glance,” said Nora petulantly. 

“ Quite. I only theorize, of course. I am open to 
persuasion — yours or Mr. Standish’s — that I have mis- 
read him. Now let us have a gallop along this road. 
It’s too good to lose.” 

As events turned out, there came no opportunity for 
an introduction to Jasper Standish until the evening 
of Mrs. O’Neil’s party. 

The two girls looked radiantly beautiful Happy 
youth ! that is self-sufficient in its own supreme pos- 
session — that can afford to laugh at Paris art and Pivet’s 
bloom ! Some such thought crossed Belle O’Neil’s mind 
as she welcomed the two graceful young figures, and 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 39 

remembered with a pang the days when Belle Brady 
had been the beauty and toast of her county. 

She was still a fine-looking woman, a woman of 
ample charms, sparkling eyes, flashing teeth ; kindly, 
good-humored, the soul of hospitality. But she saw 
the “light of other days” in these bright eyes and 
graceful figures, and gave an involuntary sigh as 
tribute to their memory. 

“Well, my dears, I suppose it’s not cards you’ll 
care to sit down to. There’s Miss Kelly, there, is 
kindly going to play some dance music for us ; and the 
hall’s all ready for you. Wait till I find you some 
partners. Kora, my dear, I think you know everyone. 
Ah ! Mr. Standish, come here half a moment. Let 
me introduce you to our new neighbor. Miss Or- 
cheton. You’ll have a quadrille together to open 
the ball, won’t you ? Kora — oh, you don’t know my 
nephew ! He’s only arrived to-day from India. Sick 
leave, he says ; not that his looks pity him, but that’s 
the voyage. Derrick, this is Miss Callaghan, of the 
Bank House ; and this Miss Orcheton, whose father’s 
your tenant at the Hermitage. Kow you look after 
them, and see they don’t want for partners. I’ll 
have my hands full when the cards are started. We’re 
desperate gamblers here, you must know. Miss Orch- 
eton — oh, shocking ! But it’s life, bless you, and 
where’d we be without a little pleasant excitement 
sometimes ? It keeps us young, anyway.” 

Lyle and Kora had received and returned their re- 
spective introductions to this running commentary. 
When Mrs. O’Keil’s voice at last ceased, Lyle was con- 
scious of an offered arm, and found herself walking 


40 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

down the brilliantly-lighted drawing-room by the side 
of the handsome County Inspector. 

Yet all the time she was thinking of a sad and deli- 
cate-looking face, out of which two melancholy dark 
eyes had looked eagerly, almost anxiously, back to her 
own. It was the face of Derrick Mallory, the past 
owner of the Hermitage, the man whom she had heard 
of as spendthrift and gambler, and hero and martyr 
alternately. And it was his house that would be her 
home, and over his mortgaged acres she would roam at 
will. Here was a ready-made interest about him. She 
wished he had spoken, but a grave bow and that look 
of pardonable curiosity had been his only response to 
their introduction. 

Meanwhile Jasper Standish was claiming her ear, 
and inquiring how she liked Ireland. 

“I liked it long before I thought of living in it,” 
she answered. “ It was my enthusiasm that induced 
my father to take the Hermitage. I used to come 
over on visits to Miss Callaghan before they settled at 
Rathfurley. We were schoolfellows, you know.” 

“ So I heard from Miss Callaghan,” he answered. 

His voice was pleasant, without very much accent, 
Lyle glanced at him, and found Nora’s admiration ex- 
cusable. He was even handsomer in evening dress 
than she had thought him at their first meeting. 

“ I am staying with her while the Hermitage is be- 
ing put into order,” she said. 

“ Miss Orcheton, do you know Ireland at all ? Do 
you suppose that important fact hasn’t been in the 
mouth of every gossoon and every gossiping old woman 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 41 

since you and your luggage arrived at the railway 
station ? ” 

She laughed. “ Yes, I ought to have known that. 
You are a notable nation of gossips, Mr. Standish.” 

“ Indeed, and we are. No need to tell me that. 
I’m glad to see you can ride. Miss Orcheton. There's 
some pretty decent hunting here in the season. I’ll 
he proud to give you a lead across a bit of Irish 
country, if I may.” 

She drew herself up somewhat stiffly. “ Thank you, 
but I have never hunted yet. I hardly think I shall 
care to do so.” 

“Not care!” His heavy lids upraised themselves 
in genuine astonishment. “ Oh ! you can’t mean that. 
Why, ’tis the grandest thing in the world. You’ll care 
fast enough once you try it.” 

“I think the quadrille is forming,” she said eva- 
sively. “ Shall we take our places ?” 

If Jasper Standish rode as well as he danced, and 
sang as well as he talked, she wondered no longer at 
his popularity. 

He claimed a waltz after the quadrille, and then put 
his name down on her program for a couple more 
later in the evening. He had done his best to interest 
her. He had come here to-night with that special 
purpose. But used as he was to easy conquests, he 
could not read through this girl’s reserve, or meet with- 
out flinching the scrutiny of her grave eyes. She made 
him feel uncomfortable and conscious, and he did not 
like the sensation. When he was away from her he 
watched her, and the proud poise of her head, the grace 
of her slender form, the serious softness of her deep* 


42 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

fringed eyes affected him as the sparkling beauty of his 
own countrywomen had never done. 

She attracted universal attention and admiration, 
as was only natural when to youth and beauty, and 
that most expressive Irish definition “ style/ 7 was 
added a rumor of heiress-ship. The only child of a 
wealthy Englishman, and one foolish enough to take 
an Irish property, well, it was small wonder if the 
young bachelors were advised to “ be keeping an eye 
on her.” 

Nora watched her friend approvingly. Her nature 
held no such paltry feeling as jealousy, and besides, 
they were such different styles that it was unlikely 
they would ever be rivals. Nora was engaged for 
every dance, but Lyle preferred withholding her 
program. 

“ I like to watch you all,” she said to Nora, who 
argued against sitting out when a floor was perfect, 
and partners numerous, and the night but young. 

“1 am enjoying myself excessively. Don’t you 
worry about me,” she added. And Nora tripped off, 
wondering at so singular a taste, for dancing and 
gambling are in the Irish blood, and to refuse the one 
and avoid the other seems an inexplicable proceed- 
ing. 

Lyle watched her and Jasper Standish waltzing, and 
drew her own conclusions. The girl’s happy face and 
shy, sweet smile spoke with translatable eloquence. 
The man was less easy to read. 

It was in one of these moments of observation that 
a figure approached her, and a voice unlike most of 
those she had heard that night requested a dance as a 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 43 

favor. She looked up, and saw Derrick Mallory stand- 
ing before her. 

She handed him her program. 

“I thought I saw you going into the card-room,” 
she said, and then flushed scarlet at self-betrayal. Foi 
it was foolish enough to have watched him — without 
confessing she had done so. 

“I went to pass away the time till I might claim 
this,” he said. “ I have not danced yet.” 

She looked up then, and met the eyes whose melan- 
choly had so appealed to her. His speech was a little 
odd, and its veiled compliment rather annoyed her. 
She put compliments down as poor coinage, which men 
offer to the presupposed vanity of women. 

“What a waste of time and good music !” she said 
lightly. 

“ You were not dancing. I found myself wondering 
what you could be thinking of, sitting in that remote 
corner and watching those romps so attentively. Our 
dancing is rather of the fast and furious type, isn’t it ? 
Some one has said of us we can be anything hut digni- 
fied. I think that’s right. We Irish throw too much 
zest into everything.” 

“ And we English too little,” she said. “ I rather 
envy that capacity for ‘letting oneself go.’ It must 
add a great deal to your enjoyment.” 

“ I suppose it does. Shall we begin ? I’m not in 
very good form. It’s a long time since I danced. I’ve 
been envying Standish there. He’s a splendid waltzer. ” 

She was silent. She had leant herself to the swing- 
ing ease of his step, the firm clasp of his arm. The air 
of the Soldaten-Lieder waltz was in her ears, and some- 


44 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

thing vague and strange and delightful set this dance 
apart from all those that had preceded it. He, too, 
looked down at the shining head, with its glittering 
coils of hair, the color coming and going in the fair 
cheek, and felt suddenly that life had changed, and the 
Avord “ woman” had become a personality for the first 
time in his life. 


CHAPTER V. 


“Has the fated fairy prince put in an appearance 
yet?” asked Hora laughingly. The two girls were 
sitting by their bedroom fire, brushing out loosened 
tresses in that semi-abandonment of dressing-gown 
hours so dear to feminine friendship. 

It was three weeks after Mrs. O’Neil’s dance, and 
in those weeks there had been scarcely a day that 
Derrick Mallory had not met them in walk or ride, or 
dropped in at afternoon tea-time in the autumn dusk, 
excused by some message from his aunt, who saw a 
pretty bit of match-making ready to hand. 

Lyle brushed the shining tresses more vigorously 
“Why do you ask ? ” 

“For the very good and sufficient reason that two 
and two make four — if one chooses to count. There 
can be little doubt of the attraction that brings a certain 
gentleman to the Bank House so often, or makes him 
so attentive to Sir Anthony, whom by rights he should 
regard as an interloper. That’s what we generally do. 
Sell our heritage to a stranger, and then hate him for- 
ever after for obligin gus with his money to stave off 
impending ruin.” 

“ You don’t suppose that Mr. Mallory takes anything 
but ordinary polite interest in us — in me ? ” questioned 
Lyle, as she busied herself over a parting that seemed 
particularly difficult to make. 

“ Oh, of course not, Ordinary interest is just the 

45 


46 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

sort of thing that brings a man out all weathers, that 
makes a daily meeting imperative, and hothouse flowers 
and fruit a quite trifling attention.” 

“ My dear Nora ” 

“ My sweetest Lyle, don't put on that serious face to 
me. It won’t do, my dear. I’ve had too many exper- 
iences not to know the real thing when I see it. Der- 
rick Mallory fell in love with you the first night he saw 
you at his aunt’s. I never saw a more hopeless case. 
Why, he doesn’t even seem to know any other girl 
exists when you’re in the room ! ” 

The cheek that was plainly visible between the soft 
waves of hair wore a very becoming flush now. 

“Nora, do you really think ” 

“ My dear, I do. And any one must be blind who 
can’t see that the man adores you. Of course, you 
disguise your feelings better. That is why I asked is 
it a case of the fairy prince — at last ? ” 

“How can I tell?” said the girl softly. “A few 
weeks are such a short time — to mean all one’s life.” 

“Yes,” said Nora, with sudden gravity. “Short 
enough to be long, if one isn’t sure. I think you 
might be sure, Lyle. Derrick Mallory is so different 
from most of the men we’ve met ; so earnest — so true. 
Neither of you take life lightly.” 

“He is — just what you say. But, Nora, there’s 
never been anything— not a word that I— that any one 
could interpret as meaning more than friendliness. 
Naturally, he takes an interest in us because of the 
Hermitage ; but that’s all.” 

“ Well, it may be all at present, but it won’t be all 
much longer.” 


47 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

Lyle sighed softly. “ I am very well content/’ she 
said. “I don’t want to have to decide. I couldn’t 
dream of leaving my father for — well, for years to 
come. And yon see, Derrick has to return to India.” 

“ Yes, in six months, worse luck ! I wonder if any- 
thing will have changed for us, Lyle, before those six 
months ? ” 

A momentary silence fell between them. The 
thoughts of both were busy with vague, sweet possibil- 
ities that neither could have put into words. Lyle 
Orcheton had not as yet dared to confess the secret of 
this growing attraction. She could not assure herself 
that it was love — the love that makes or mars life, that 
robs girlhood to enrich its after-womanhood ; that is 
sweet, painful, incomprehensible ; that steals in like a 
thief opposed to lawful authority, and hides its treasure 
with a guilty pride in its possession, at once shamed and 
proud and defiant. She only knew that Derrick Mallory 
was more to her than she had ever dreamt a man could 
become, and how or why he had become so in this brief 
space of time she was unable to say. 

Also, another secret was troubling her, which loyalty 
forbade her to reveal, and which she marveled Nora 
had not discovered for herself. This was the subtle 
homage of Jasper Standish. So subtle was it, so deli- 
cately conveyed, that it rendered her defenseless. She 
could not oppose or resent what was never openly ac- 
knowledged. A hint, a look, a whisper, these were 
vague things to wake such uneasiness and dislike as she 
felt for this man, but they were about her like a breath 
— a cobweb — something to disdain or brush aside, yet 
impossible to avoid. Then, too, her father had taken 


48 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

an unaccountable fancy for the man, and showed an 
equally unaccountable dislike to Derrick Mallory. 

Lyle did not guess that his mind was being slowly 
poisoned against her undeclared lover by the man who 
coveted his place. Sir Anthony heard stories of wild- 
ness, extravagance, gambling habits, that filled him 
with alarm, and made him ostensibly cold and imper- 
vious to any friendly overtures on Derrick’s part. 

It was impossible for the young man not to feel this 
coldness and avoidance. A curt greeting, a frigid 
handshake, a scarcely disguised indifference to his pres- 
ence, these gave chilling encouragement to his newly 
dawning hopes. Lyle, it is true, was always the same 
gracious and lovely divinity he had crowned as love of 
his life from the first hour of their meeting, but Lyle 
was young and rich, and her father’s idol. He could 
not press a suit which that father seemed bent on dis- 
couraging. 

So matters looked black for the prince and princess 
of Nora’s fairy tale, and her concern and interest in 
them perhaps helped to blind her to the undercurrent 
that was at work in her own affairs, 

That special night they talked more gravely than 
they had yet done, drawn together by some prescience 
of dawning trouble that each recognized for the 
other. 

“Do you know,” asked Lyle at last, “ if Derrick 
Mallory is really very poor ? Father says he is, and 

also that he is deeply in debt. I wish ” she stopped 

abruptly, but the sympathy in the eyes so near her own, 
unlocked her lips. “ Oh ! Nora, I feel that father does 
pot like him, I wish he did. He seems to be unao- 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 49 

countably prejudiced against him. Why, I cannot 
imagine.” 

Nora drew the lovely head, with its fleece of goldea 
locks, against her shoulder. 

“ Dear,” she said, “I didn't want to discourage yoi>, 
but I have noticed the same thing. Sir Anthony, 
who is so genial and kind to every one, is unaccount- 
ably distant to poor Derrick. He was almost rude to 
him yesterday. If I were you, I think I should ask 
the reason. Perhaps he fears losing you : it may be 
jealousy of a new rival. He has been the “ only one ” 
so long. My old dad is more philosophic. He has 
never taken my flirtations seriously to heart. He 
knows he will have to lose me some day.” 

“ Oh, I could not ask him ?” exclaimed Lyle. if It 
would look so — so strange. I must only hope that 
time will overcome this prejudice. There can be no 
real reason for it. Have you heard any'stories to— his 
discredit ? ” 

That pronoun gave away the situation most inno- 
cently. Nora smiled under the veil of hair she was 
curling and twisting with idle fingers. 

“ It depends,” she said archly, “ on what you con- 
sider discredit. He did gamble a good deal — once. 
Long ago that was, before he went out to India. Of 
course we know nothing of his life out there. But 
then, what do girls ever know of men’s lives ? We 
have to take them on trust. Our own instincts are 
all we have to guide us. No wonder marriage is a lot- 
tery, as they say. Who can tell if it’s a prize or a 
blank they’re drawing until it’s too late to change ! ” 

“ And love — what of that ?” 

4 


5o 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ It is a dream in a sleep, I often think. And it 
lasts just so long as no one wakes — the dreamer. 

Lyle was silent. She was standing on the thresh- 
old of life ; standing, waiting, holding out hopeful 
hands to some beautiful dream-god in the land of shad- 
ows beyond. But where he might lead her and what 
she was to find, when the light of day should sweep the 
shadows away and show her that land beyond, she knew 
no more than a child knows. 

For this is Life. A dream first, then a fever and 
delirium peopled with phantasies, then a cold, empty 
space in which we blindly grope, praying dumbly for a 
little love, a little peace, a little rest, ere we sink back 
again into the shadows whence we came. 

***** 

Their talk that night drew the girls still closer to- 
gether ; wakened in each heart something deeper and 
stronger than ordinary girlish friendship. 

The first hint of trouble is always a test to any 
nature. It has to face the experience that others have 
tasted and found bitter ; it shrinks involuntarily from 
the ordeal, and turns eagerly to any sympathy. 

Into the charmed circle of these young lives had 
penetrated the first chill breath of such trouble. They 
clung to each other with a vague fear that was not to 
be explained, but of which they were conscious. They 
could not put it into words — yet. But the time 
was not far off when words would do little to lessen it. 

Lyle sat on for long after Nora had left her ; sat on, 
her eyes gazing into the fire, her chin resting on her 
hand, seeing in glowing ember and leaping flame a 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 51 

hundred fanciful pictures. And always among them 
moved one figure, and always, looking back at her, 
were two eyes, very tender, very earnest, very sad. 
And as they met her gaze she could feel her heart 
beating with a strange mixture of joy and fear. 

“ He does care ! ” she whispered. “ Oh ! I know 
that, by what I feel myself. And yet there is some- 
thing — something that holds him back, that seals his 
lips. Oh ! I wish I knew ! I wish I knew ! I do not 
think I should be afraid.” 


CHAPTER VI. 

The County Inspector sat in his little office study, 
gazing with moody brows at the rows of figures in a 
leathern pocket-book. His handsome face was not 
pleasant to look at. He shut the book with a vicious 
snap, and tossed it into a drawer of his writing-table, 
which he shut and locked. 

His official room was in the barracks ; but here at 
home he reserved this little dingy study for other sorts 
of business. It was only furnished with a leather- 
topped writing-table, some chairs, an old mahogany 
book-case filled with musty volumes on law and sport, 
while a gun rack and some hunting-crops ornamented 
the walls. Above the mantelshelf was a small oval mir- 
ror in a wide gilt frame, and below it was a medley of 
pipes, cigar cases, and tobacco jars. 

As he turned from the table and began slowly to 
pace the small room, his eyes caught the reflection of 
his face and its expression in the glass. He paused 
abruptly, scanning lowered brows and somber eyes, and 
the cruel mouth which the soft mustache but half 
concealed. 

“ What a murderous brute I look !” he muttered. 
“ Not much there to charm a girl’s eyes.” 

He rested his elbows on the low mantel, and gazed 
long and earnestly at that face of his, of whose every 
good point he was fully conscious. He was an excess- 
ively vain man, and numberless feminine conquests 
52 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 53 

had but added fuel to that glowing fire of personal 
self-appreciation. Vanity and avarice were indeed the 
ruling passions of his nature, though he called the one 
pride and the other ambition. After a long and earn- 
est scrutiny he again turned from the glass and com- 
menced that restless pacing. 

“ I’m in a cursed hole, there’s no doubt about it,” 
so ran his reflections. “It’s not only the girl, but 
the money. Two thousand — and only another month 
to get it ! If I could pay off half, they’d renew ; but 
where on earth am I to lay hands on a thousand ? It 
might as well be fifty ! Devil take my cursed luck ! 
When I backed Shamrock, I thought he was as sure as 
the bank, and ” 

He stood quite still, as if some chance word had set 
him off on a new train of reflection. But the reflection 
could not have been pleasant, for cold drops of sweat 
started from his brow and his lips twitched and paled. 

“ Powers above ! I never thought of that. It might 
be done. Of all living men I’d be the last to come 
under suspicion. My position gives me the run of the 
place as well as the investigation afterwards. And I 
could always pay it back again, once I -was straight. 
Sir Anthony’s rich. The girl will have everything. 
I could win her over, though she’s no great liking for 
me as yet. But Nora ” 

Again his brow darkened. 

“ To give her the go-by, after as good as making love 
to her — well, she won’t be the first girl who’s been 
thrown over. She’ll soon console herself. If only she’d 
keep a silent tongue to the other. The devil’s in it 
with their friendliness. 'As fond as two sisters,’ 


54 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

people say. A deal fonder, Fm thinking. Sisters can 
keep their own secrets friends can’t — not women folk, 
that’s the curse of it.” 

A light tap at the window startled him. He went 
forward and drew back the curtain. The night was 
very dark. A faint rain was falling. 

“ Is that you, Mickey ? ” he asked sharply 

“ It is, yer honor. I’ve a wurrd for ye.” 

“ Jump in then.” 

The lad obeyed, and vaulted lightly from sill to floor 
as if well used to the process. 

“ Well ?” questioned Standish sharply. 

“ Yer honor told me to kape me ears open if ever 
wurrd av Donovan’s farm bein’ sold came my way.” 
“Yes.” 

“ Sure, thin, it’s to be sold immaydiate, an’ a man 
from Limerick’s buyin’ it. A rich draper who’s tired 
av city life, an’ mad to be a gintleman farmer. It’s 
thrue for ye, sir, as thrue as Eve ate the little apples.” 

“ How did you hear it ? ” 

“ I’m not goin’ to say more thin yer payin’ for,” said 
the youth doggedly, his eyes glancing sideways at the 
handsome face before him. “ There’s at laste five 
shillings due to me now, an’ divil a ha’penny I’ve seen 
av it. Whin I gets that, I’ll be after tellin’ ye more, 
maybe. It’s ineself has learnt the name av the pur- 
chaser, an’ the day whin the money’s to be paid over.” 

A curious gleam shot from Jasper Stand ish’s eyes. 
He drew a handful of loose silver from his pocket and 
threw it on the table. 

“ Take that, and be d d to you for a thief of the 

world ! Now — go on.” 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 55 

The boy seized the money eagerly, and proceeded to 
tie it np in a ragged strip of handkerchief whtch he 
took from his throat. 

“ It’s the whole bizness yer honor’s wantin’ ? ” 

“ No — cut it short. As long as the selling is decided 
I only want to know the date, and how the purchase 
money is to be paid.” 

“ Sure there’ll be grand work over that, what with 
lawyers an’ witnesses an’ all ; an’ Donovan, he’s goin’ 
out to his son in Ameriky. He’ll be lookin’ out for a 
property there, so I’ve heard.” 

“ You’re quite sure about the farm ? ” 

“ Sure an’ sartin’ be me own four fingers . 1 I heard 
ivery wurrd av the matter by rayson ay bein’ in Bartie 
Meagan’s public-house, an’ shammin’ slape whilst they 
was makin’ the bargain. Mighty close it was to be 
kept, so they said. Divil a wurrd to be breathed to 
the naybors. They thought ’twas heavy wid the drink 
I was, yer honor, an’ never took no manner av notice. 
But ye may take me wurrd, the bargain’s struck, an’ 
sorra a way out av it.” 

“ That will do,” said Standish quietly. “Now be 
off with yourself and keep your tongue in your mouth, 
or it will be the worse for you. If you get drunk and 
blab before I give you leave, there’s that poaching af- 
fair waiting for you. Eemember I’m only staying my 
hand.” 

“ Sure yer honor’s not manin’ to be hard on a poor 
lad that’s thrown on the wurrld, like meself. I’ve 
sarved ye well, an ” 

“ That will do, I tell you. Go ! ” 

1 The sign of the cross. 


56 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

If Jasper Standish had seen the vindictive face that 
looked hack at the window a moment later, and heard 
the muttered curse that followed it, he might not have 
felt quite so easy respecting this half-witted tool of his. 
But he was blissfully unconscious that Mickey Doolan 
had an independent mind of his own, and was becom- 
ing deeply resentful of the treatment he received from 
his employer. 

“Now wnat’s his rayson for wantin’ to know about 
Donovan’s farm unbeknown to Donovan ? ” ruminated 
the boy as he picked his way home over fields and pud- 
dles through the now fast-falling rain. “ ’Twould have 
been mighty aisy to put his question to thim as is con- 
sarned in the matter instead of setting me listenin’ an’ 
papin’ at kayholes an’ sich like. But, indade, it’s the 
quare ways Mister Inspector has wid him. Now I’m 
jist axin’ meself if this bit av information will be avany 
sarvice to the English lady ? Maybe she could make 
some sinse out av it, an’ if there’s another half-crown 
to be got for that same, Mickey’s the boy to git it. 
I’ll jist be hangin’ about the Bank convaynient to- 
morrow morning, an’ see if I can git a wurrd av her 
at all. I’m none so fond av Mister Standish that I’d 
mind sarvin’ him a thrick wan av these days. It’s 
many a cuff an’ a kick an’ a curse I owe him, an’ I’m 
not appreshiating thim sort av wages. It’s a fule he 
thinks I am, but there’s fules as is wiser than thim as 
thinks thimselves wise.” 

And to the tune of this philosophy he got home and 
ate his supper, regardless of his father’s curses and his 
mother’s laments over the “ vagabone ” of the family. 

As for Standish, once the boy had gone he drew a 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 57 

chair up to the fire, poured out a glass of whisky, lit 
his pipe, and indulged in reflection. 

What ideas ran riot in his brain, what plot weaved 
itself from such seemingly important information as 
Mickey Doolan’s, were not betrayed by outward sign. 
His face grew dark and evil. He drank deeply, and 
only seemed more morose and evil-looking with each 
replenished glass. It was close on midnight before 
he rose and extinguished the lamp. 

“ A month ! ” he said, and glanced at the drawer 
which held that hateful heap of obligations. “Well, 
many things happen in a month. I might even find 
myself a rich man — in a month . ” 

He stumbled up to bed and threw himself down, 
dressed as he was, and fell into the heavy, senseless 
sleep of intoxication. 

It was well Nora Callaghan could not see him then. 
And yet had she done so, the pang that would have 
rent her girlish heart might have cured that girlish in- 
fatuation, and saved her from worse sorrow and worse 
suffering in the time to come. 

As days glided into weeks, the staff of workpeople 
at the Hermitage proved that wonders could be done, 
even in a country averse to the folly of making un- 
necessary haste over anything while a year holds 365 
days. 

The rooms grew beautiful and habitable. The 
grounds were cleared of all encumbering weeds and 
brambles, the lawn was smoothly rolled, the walks 
freshly graveled, the straggling roses pruned and 
trellised, and all the wealth of autumn flowers left to 
bloom in beds and borders. 


58 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“We shall be in before Christmas, after all,” said 
Lyle, gayly, to her father, as they paid their almost 
daily visit of direction and supervision. “ The serv- 
ants could be here next week when the furniture 
comes. The house looks perfectly livable now. A 
few good fires is all it wants. Our rooms are quite 
ready. We shall only really need the hall and your 
study at first.” 

“ You seem very anxious to get in, child,” said Sir 
Anthony, smiling at her eager face. “ I must say, I 
scarcely expected such satisfactory results. If you are 
sure the rooms aren't damp, I don't mind how soon we 
settle. The hotel is not very comfortable, and we are 
trespassing too long on the hospitality of the Cal- 
laghans. When shall I send for the servants?” 

They were to have their old butler and cook from 
England, and Lyle was to engage others in the town. 
After some discussion, it was arranged that the next 
week would bring the house into sufficient order for the 
domestics to put in an appearance, and after informing 
the foreman of this decision, and begging him to pro- 
ceed with the remaining work as speedily as possible, 
the father and daughter rode home. 

As they passed the Gray Lodge, Jasper Standish was 
coming out, also mounted. Sir Anthony greeted him 
cordially, and told him of his recent decision. 

“I'm delighted with the house,” he went on. “It 
didn't look very promising at first, but upon my word 
I think I've got a bargain.” 

“ There are a good many similar bargains to be had 
in this distressful country,” said Standish, keeping his 
little blood mare close to Lyle's chestnut. She had 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 59 

scarcely looked at him. He felt piqued and an- 
noyed. 

Her coldness added zest to his pursuit of her. It 
was new to him to meet with repulse from anything 
feminine. 

“ The sooner we are neighbors, the happier for me,” 
he said, softly, in a little averted ear. 

It was not turned to him in any sort of response, 
and the girl’s eyes remained fixed on the road before 
her. She was never so cold or so disdainful as when 
Jasper Standish was by her side. There seemed to 
her something treacherous in his pretended homage, 
his ever-ready compliment. The very slightest touch 
of the whip sent the pretty chestnut curvetting rest- 
lessly. 

“ Heartsease isn’t used to another horse so near,” 
said Lyle, falling into a quick trot, which brought her 
ahead of her companions. 

“ Yet I’ve seen one horse as close to her side as I 
was, and she showed no displeasure,” muttered Jasper 
savagely. 

The only answer to this ill-bred remark was the 
changing from trot to gallop. He had perforce to 
stay beside Sir Anthony. 

“Let her go ahead,” said that gentleman; “it 
doesn’t matter. My sober old gray has kept the little 
mare at a footpace almost. I’m glad I’ve met you, 
Standish. Why, we shall be next-door neighbors, so 
to speak. You must drop in whenever you can. A 
hand at cards, or a little music, you know.” 

“ You are most kind. I needn’t say how I shall 
value such neighbors. By the bye, Sir Anthony, what’s 


6o 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

happened to young Mallory ? I heard he’d gone to 
London. Is that so ? ” 

“ He’s not here, at all events,” said Sir Anthony, 
“ And I for one am not sorry. A man with such a 
history behind him is not safe company ; and scoundrels 
are generally fascinating to women, especially young 
and romantic women. I am just beginning to realize 
a father’s responsibilities, Standish. They’re pretty 
heavy, let me tell you.” 

“But Miss Orcheton ” 

“ Oh, Lyle is good and dutiful and loving enough, 
I grant ; but when a man’s getting old, and realizes 
that he’ll be left in the lurch for sake of some young 
sprig with a handsome face and empty pockets, why, 
— he’s apt to regret that Fate has left him the double 
responsibility of a widower’s lot. ” 

“ You’re not a bit too old to change that lot, and 
halve the responsibility,” laughed Jasper encourag- 
ingly. 

“ Oh, my dear sir, thank you — no. That’s not in 
my line at all. A man at my time of life doesn’t take 
kindly to new faces, new rules, new ways. I’m per- 
fectly contented as I am, if only Lyle didn’t give me a 
twinge of anxiety now and again. I’m not ambitious 
for her to make a grand match. I’d sooner she made 
a happy one. But it’s a terrible thing for a girl to 
sacrifice herself to an infatuation. ” 

“ I hope you’ve no reason to fear such a thing on 
Miss Orcheton’s part ? ” 

“ Not positively. Only Callaghan gave me a hint, 
and I didn’t quite like it. A rather constant visitor ; 
and it certainly wasn’t Miss Nora he came after. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 61 

That’s one reason I’ll be glad to have my own house, 
and choose my own company.” 

With all Sir Anthony’s good-nature and absent- 
mindedness, there was mingled a little strain of ob- 
stinacy. He had taken it into his head that the 
quondam owner of the Hermitage was not a desirable 
acquaintance. He had come into property, and gam- 
bled it away. That was how he looked at Derrick 
Mallory’s position and misfortunes. He never took 
into consideration that the said property had been 
heavily encumbered at the time of such inheritance, 
that it had been quite beyond Derrick’s means to keep 
up the place, or play the role of landed proprietor 
where so much would be expected of him. The old 
baronet only looked at the main facts of the case, and 
ignored all those that served to excuse it. 

The last thing on earth he would have wished was 
that Lyle should become attached to what he termed 
“ a penniless spendthrift ” ; and the fact that she was 
becoming interested in that young man was quite 
enough to alarm him. The sudden departure of Der- 
rick to London was, to him, a very fortunate coinci- 
dence. He only wished he might be detained there 
until they were fairly settled at the Hermitage. It would 
be easier then to show him that his acquaintance was 
not desirable. 

Jasper Standish gathered these facts with little dif- 
ficulty. It seemed to him that for once Fate was play- 
ing into his hands, and smoothing the path on 
which his feet were set. Before him gleamed the 
star of ambition. A wealthy marriage was all he 
needed. He saw himself as magistrate and landowner ; 


62 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

a wealthy man ; a man of social and political import- 
ance. 

Nothing stood between him and the realization of 
such ambition but a girl’s whim. Stay ! Yes — one 
thing. He thought of the figures in that pocketbook. 
He thought of the hours of grace growing less and 
less. He must prove to his creditor that he was soon 
to be the husband of an heiress, or furnish himself with 
means to pay this claim. 

His brow darkened. He almost hated the old man 
babbling so cheerfully at his side ; but more than all 
he hated the girl who rode there in her insolent grace 
before his moody eyes — the girl who was so necessary 
to his schemes, and had that day thrown at his feet the 
glove of feminine defiance. 


CHAPTER VII. 


A feelikg at once hurt and proud, yet holding 
depths of unsuspected pain, was asserting itself in Lyle 
Orcheton’s heart. To have received such silent wor- 
ship, such unmistakable devotion as Derrick Mallory 
had shown, and then be left alone, facing an unex- 
plained absence, an unuttered confession — it was a try- 
ing ordeal. 

In later years a woman learns to be less sensitive 
than in the first dawn of exacting youth. Her dreams 
are less crystalline, her imagination less poetic. She 
has suffered disillusion but learnt patience. She no 
longer rushes off at a tangent because her lover has 
omitted a duty or committed a trifling fault. Absence 
is excusable ; silence may possess virtues of discretion. 
She can afford to wait for explanation instead of flying 
into a whirlpool of emotion, or a cataract of tears by 
way of relief. But this wisdom comes only with years 
and knowledge and a wider comprehension of poor 
humanity’s limitations. 

It had not come yet to Lyle Orcheton or to Nora 
Callaghan. They were both suffering in their respect- 
ive fashions, and the fact of such suffering shut the 
door of confidence on feelings that had seemed delight- 
ful in the first dawn of acknowledgment. They pre- 
tended to be as light of heart, as full of enjoyment, as 

63 


64 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

eager in anticipation, as they had once succeeded in 
being without need of pretence. 

“ If he is not what I thought him, well — let him go ! ” 
was the secret thought of each, and in a hundred little 
words and ways they conveyed to each other that after 
all men were absolutely necessary to the enjoyment of 
life : not absolute heroes of romance. It might be 
possible to place them on too lofty a pedestal, dower 
them with too rich a burden of virtues. 

But each young heart ached for that assurance, and 
smiles were less frequent and the laughter held a forced 
note of mirth, instead of its former spontaneous ring. 

There is nothing harder to act than happiness when 
it has fled — unless, indeed, it be sorrow before it is 
realized. But sympathy can help the latter, whereas 
nothing — neither sympathy, nor good fortune, nor 
friendship — can create anything hut a false model of 
happiness, once the real thing is destroyed. Yet they 
played their parts very bravely, and no one guessed that 
life was temporarily out of tune for both. 

Sir Anthony was engrossed with artistic designs ; 
with burrowing and searching for quaint and old- 
fashioned furnishing. He saw no change in Lyle. 
If anything, she seemed more eager, more talkative, 
more brilliant than of old : a still more charming and 
sympathetic companion than she had always been. 

He was blissfully content. It seemed to him that 
he had found a very pleasant anchorage for his failing 
years. He enjoyed the genial companionship of Tom 
Callaghan, with that appreciation of qualities in an- 
other that we ourselves lack, which is an excellent 
basis for friendship. To play chess or take a hand at 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 65 

cards of evenings with the genial bank manager and 
his cronies, to listen to his Irish stories, to drink his 
excellent Irish whisky, had become quite an established 
custom now. The one drawback to his life at the 
Hermitage would be the greatly increased distance 
that would separate him from the town, and would 
render these evenings occasional instead of nightly 
pleasures. However, he would not mar present enjoy- 
ment by anticipating future abstinence. Tom Cal- 
laghan, as he was generally called, had introduced him 
to many of the neighboring gentry, and Mrs. O’Neil 
had done the same with regard to the county. 

However, Sir Anthony found no society so much to 
his taste as that of Tom Callaghan himself, and his 
old crony and schoolmate. Dr. Kelly, who lived in a 
quaint red-brick house in the middle of Slancy Street, 
and was the most popular as well as the most skilful 
practitioner in the district. “Doctor Dan,” everyone 
called him. Indeed, so universal was the cognomen 
that Sir Anthony also found himself employing it. 

Dr. Dan was a true son of Erin, rollicking, good- 
natured, fond of a spree, and fonder still of a good 
story. His wife was somewhat of an invalid, and 
rarely went from home ; but Dr. Dan was free of every 
house in the county or district under his charge, and 
the very sight of his beaming jovial face and merry 
blue eyes was “as good as physic any day,” to quote 
popular opinion. 

It wanted but two days of that month to which Jaspei 1 
Standish was looking forward with growing desperation. 
His affairs had not improved in one particular. He 
had not been able to meet or secure Lyle Orcheton’s 
5 


66 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

attention, and he dared not ask her father for a loan 
under present circumstances. 

He was spending the evening at the Bank House, 
having been invited by the manager to drop in and 
take a hand at whist with Sir Anthony and Dr. Dan. 
In the hopes of a tete-a-tete with Lyle he accepted. 

The two girls, however, retreated to their own 
sanctum as soon as the cards appeared. There was 
some feminine mystery of dressmaking going forward, 
with which Jane Grapnell was helping her young mis- 
tress. They had been invited to a dance on New Year’s 
Eve at Mrs. Brady O’Neil’s, which necessitated alter- 
ations in previously worn gowns, far too fresh and 
pretty to be discarded, yet labelled with that terrible 
“ worn before ” which seems as “ Anathema marantha ” 
to minds feminine. 

At ten o’clock Mr. Callaghan announced that he 
must break up the whist party. 

“The truth is,” he said, “I’m a bit behind with 
some work. My clerk’s had a sharp attack of pleurisy 
and I’ve had to do everything single-handed. They’re 
to send me another from the head-office to-morrow. 
So for my credit’s sake I must get the work ready to- 
night. A couple of hours will do it. This was market 
day too, and I have a lot of money to lock up in the 
safe and see to. That fellow Donovan, who sold 
Ballygar Farm, would insist on cash payment and kept 
me until after closing time, counting it out and examin- 
ing it like an old woman, till I was sick of the fel- 
low. ” 

“ Donovan ? Oh, yes ! He’s off to America, I’m 
told,” said Dr. Dan. “ He kept that little business of 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 67 

his mighty secret. A queer close file he is, though. 
I suppose he made a good thing out of it, Tom ? ” 

“ He did, indeed, and he was as frightened as a 
child about his money. Didn’t dare take it home for 
fear he’d be robbed and murdered. There’s a lot of 
queer characters about just now, he says.” 

Jasper Standish was bending over the fire to light a 
spill for his pipe. He kept his back turned to the 
speakers, but a curious steely glitter came into his eyes. 

“ So there are!” he said. “A troublesome gang 
who’re giving me a lot of bother. They seem to be 
everywhere at once. There were three robberies last 
week.” 

“ Well, at all events, old Donovan’s money’s safe 
enough,” laughed Tom Callaghan. 

“ Ah ! then, Tom, if it’s work that’s claiming you 
I’ll be off,” said Dr. Dan. “ I as good as promised to 
look in on young Sullivan’s wife. Twins to-day. I 
have to pass their shop on my way home. I suppose 
the young ladies are after their beauty sleep. Faith ! 
they’re wise. Good *night, Sir Anthony. May I never 
have worse luck or a better partner than I’ve had to- 
night. Ho, Tom. Don’t you be coming to the door. 
It’s a devil of a night. Dark as Erebus and raining fit to 
drown cats. It’s glad I am I haven’t your journey be- 
fore me, Jasper, my boy ! Good night all !” 

Sir Anthony rose, and made his adieux as cordially 
but less noisily. Tom Callaghan escorted him to the 
door. The hotel was scarcely five minutes’ distance. 

The night was all and worse than Dr. Dan had de- 
clared it. A storm of rain and sleet blew in as the 
door opened. The street without was dark and full of 


68 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

pools and ruts. The lamps made faint blurs and shadows 
that were scarcely deserving of such a description as 
“ illuminating.” 

The bank manager closed the door with a shiver and 
came back to the dining-room. Jasper Standish was 
still in the same position, gazing into the fire. 

“ Come and have another glass of whisky, Standish, 
before you face the elements,” said his host genially. 
“ Are you riding home to-night ?” 

“ Yes. I left my mare at Moriarty’s. She’d cast 
a shoe ; and he promised to keep her there till I 
called.” 

“It’s an awful night.” 

“ Oh, I’ve got my mackintosh,” he answered in- 
differently, as he poured out the whisky with a some- 
what unsteady hand. 

There was a curious look of repressed excitement 
about him, and he drank the copious libation of strong 
spirit at a draught. Tom Callaghan glanced at him 
with some wonder. He had never seen the cool, hand- 
some Inspector do such a thing in all his previous 
experience. 

“ I was thinking, if you don’t mind, Mr. Callaghan, 
that I’d like to go round witli you and see that the — 
the premises are really secure,” he said, as he put down 
his glass. “ I’ve often thought that door opening into 
the lane was none too safe.” 

“You mean from my private room ?” 

“Yes.” 

“ Oh, nonsense, my dear fellow ! Safe as — as a 
bank, I was going to say. Come and see for yourself. 
It has bolts and chain.” 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 69 

“ Burglars and desperadoes have made short work of 
such defenses before now, Mr. Callaghan.” 

“ Are you trying to frighten me ?” 

“ Not at all. Only you may be sure that the news 
of all that money being lodged with you is well known. 
Donovan had his own fears, evidently. I’ll tell you 
what. I’ll send one o my men to keep special guard 
round the place. I must pass the barracks, you know, 
on my way home.” 

“ It’s very good of you, Standish, but, upon my 
word, it’s not the least bit necessary. This is not the 
first time, by a good many, I’ve had large sums of 
money lodged here. Besides — the safe would defy 
burglars. They can’t open it, and they certainly can’t 
remove it. However, you come along with me and I’ll 
prove your fears groundless. Oh ! just one moment. 
I’ll see if the servants have gone up-stairs, and give the 
girls a hint not to be scared if they hear me in the dead 
hour of the night groping my way to bed.” 

He laughed again and went out into the passage and 
then up the stairs. Jasper Standish heard his pleasant 
cheery voice speaking from the landing to Nora, and 
telling her he had to be in the Bank for a couple of 
hours. He heard, and his heart began to beat with 
quick, feverish throbs. His hands were so tightly 
clenched that the nails pressed into the palms and he 
was unconscious of the pain. 

“Is it the devil that’s behind it all, or a stroke of 
luck for me ? ” he thought. 

Then the brisk footsteps sounded on their return. 
The door opened. 

“Now, Standish, I’m at your service. This way.” 


7o The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ Shall I put out the light ? ” 

“ No, leave it. Ever}’- one’s gone to bed. Maybe 
I’ll need a drop of whisky when I come back.” 

When I come back ! Jasper’s heart stood still, then 
galloped on with quick, mad beats. 

“ If you ever do ! ” he whispered. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


A payed passage led from the house into the Bank. 
It was small and insignificant enough compared with 
its important brethren of London, or Cork, or Dublin. 
Behind the counter was the clerk’s desk, and beyond 
that the manager’s room, in which stood the safe se- 
cured to the floor. Mr. Callaghan put down the candle 
he carried, and then lit the gas. Outside the rain beat 
against the window, which was protected by iron bars. 

“ You’ll find it cold here without a fire,” said Jasper, 
glancing at the gray ashes in the grate. 

“ So I shall, my boy,” said the manager ruefully. 
et I ought to have had it laid ready for lighting. No 
matter, I’ll put my office coat on atop of this.” 

He went over to the peg on which hung a warm, 
thick coat of gray frieze, and took it down. 

“ I left the books here ready,” he went on, approach- 
ing the table, “ but first I’ll lock away that money. 
You said you wanted to look at the fastenings, Stan- 
dish. Do, while I’m at the safe. Then I’ll let you out 
at the other door before I set to work.” 

“ I — I suppose I could not help you ? ” hazarded 
Jasper. 

<e My dear fellow, every cobbler to his last. Book- 
keeping and petty cash accounts aren’t learnt by in- 
stinct. I do hope that clerk of mine will pull round 
soon. He is such a smart fellow, and knows his busi- 

7 r 


72 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

ness thoroughly. What are you looking at ? Nothing 
wrong about that window, is there ? ” 

“A pane of glass cracked, that's all. Do you mind 
my having the candle here a second ? ” 

“Not at all. Take it.” 

He passed it across the table, then took his keys out, 
and opened the drawer of his writing-table. 

“Poor old • Donovan ! ” he chuckled. “He was 
mighty frightened about this money of his. It’s a 
good sum too. But there’s no customer like your re- 
tired tradesman.” 

Jasper made no answer. He heard the jingle of the 
keys, the clink of coins in little leather bags, as Mr. 
Callaghan had put them in, the rustle of paper notes 
those dirty troublesome pound notes beloved of the 
Irish. A mist swam before his eyes. His hand shook 
so violently that the candle almost dropped. A swirl 
of rain and sleet beat against the windows. It sounded 
to him like a summons. If his brain would only clear 
— if he could only think of a plan. There lay the 
money so near. The very sum he needed to stave off 
ruin and exposure, and that damnable voice whispering 
in his ear — “ Your chance at last ! ” 

Should he take it ? If he could - frame any excuse 
to get Callaghan out of the room — but then he didn’t 
know the right keys. And it would be known he had 
been there. No ; that would not do. Was there no 
other way ? Stun him suddenly — creep up behind him 
while he was at the safe. Yes, that was better. No 
fear of detection. The window ? It was high up. It 
looked out on a small side-street or lane. No oue 
could see. He cast a furtive glance at the white head 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 73 

bending over the lock ; another second and it would be 
opened. A second ! His thoughts whirled. The 
mist was red now — red and thick, closing round him. 
The voice had changed. It was imperative. “ What 
do you fear ? Who will ever know?” it whispered. 
“ Who would ever suspect you ? Take your chance. 
You'll never get such another.” 

“How am I to do it ?” He had lost command of 
himself now. He seemed no longer Jasper Standish 
as he had known and thought of Jasper Standish, but 
a cold relentless evil soul, dealing out the last moments 
of a doomed life ; with no pity for its age, or its harm- 
lessness, the suffering of others, the ruin to itself. He 
looked at the clock. How time had raced since the 
first chance words of this unconscious victim had fired 
a train of thought within his murderous breast ! 

Again that chink of the money. The manager was 
putting it away. If once the safe were locked he 
might never be able to open it. If 

There must be no “ if.” It was too late for scruples 
now. He turned. The mist cleared from his eyes ; 
he saw on tbt3 table a large file weighted with bills and 
papers. The hook was sharp. 

A stride — a blow — a heavy fall. The hook had 
crashed through the skull of the unconscious man. 
He fell beside the open safe, the blood spouting up in 
a stream of crimson, dyeing the floor on which he lay. 

^ ^ ^ ^ 

The calmness of desperation seized the murderer. 
Now the deed was done he must avoid all chance of 
suspicion. It must seem to have been a crime com- 


74 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

mitted for sake of robbery — as it was. He put the 
little bags of gold and silver into his pockets, avoiding 
the notes in case of detection. Then he lowered the 
gas, and went over to the window. A pressure, and 
the broken pane yielded, the cold rain swept in. Next 
he tried the bars. One alone was loose and moved 
beneath his fierce strength. With a desperate effort 
he wrenched it from its place and laid it on the floor 
within the room. 

Surely that was enough. The open safe, the scat- 
tered papers, told their own tale. Now he must get 
away and make good his story for to-morrow. 
There was no chance of discovery. He would call at 
the barracks and send a constable as special guard, 
telling him Mr. Callaghan was working late in the 
Bank to account for the light. 

How clear his brain felt. How easy it was now to 
plot and plan. And how easy it would be to avert 
suspicion. He had only to offer his own evidence 
ready-made for the occasion. The resident magistrate 
was a harmless, convivial old gentleman, greatly ad- 
dicted to hot punch and whist playing. There was 
nothing to fear from him. 

Now to unlock the door and get away. 

The door leading into the private portion of the 
Bank premises was closed but not locked. He debated 
a moment as to whether it was advisable to leave it so, 
or give the first discoverer in the morning the trouble 
of breaking it open. 

Precaution was safer. He crossed over and locked 
it. Then he let down the chain and unfastened the 
stiff bolts of that other exit. It creaked horribly in 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 75 

the stillness, as it swung back. Mr, Callaghan had 
rarely used it. Indeed there seemed no reason for its 
being there at all. 

Standish did not think so apparently, as he crept 
out into the darkness and stood listening intently, his 
breath suspended, his ears strained to their utmost. 
All depended on this moment. Should any one be pass- 
ing, should he be seen coming into the main thorough- 
fare from this passage, his careful schemes might yet 
be of no avail. 

He drew his soft felt hat down over his brows, and 
turned up the collar of his mackintosh. The wind 
howled dismally through the dark street, the sky 
above was black and starless, the rain fell in straight 
close sheets, through which the fierce gusts scurried at 
intervals. It was an awful night. Little chance of 
any one being abroad whom necessity did not drive to 
it. Yet still he hesitated and listened. 

Suddenly he started. What was that ? A soft patter 
of bare feet echoing on the pavement. Would they 
pass or turn down here ? They halted. His straining 
ears held every other sense submissive for one hateful 
moment. Then the patter continued down the street. 
They had not turned into the lane, where he crouched 
amidst the shadows dark and thick and ominous, as 
would his own fears be from this night forward. 

The fox may escape pursuer by fleet foot and wary 
eye, the hunted beast may turn and rend its dauntless 
hunter, but to the human creature stained with crime 
and forever haunted by the phantom of discovery there 
is neither refuge nor defiance possible. The terror that 
pursues him from the first hour of his guilt is one that 


76 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

eye cannot evade, nor foot outspeed. He can kill life 
but he cannot kill that terror of himself, and that 
threatened vengeance which is set by an invincible 
Power above men’s deeds, so that let the world judge 
of them as it may, they shall never escape the doom 
they have recklessly challenged. 

The day was to come when Jasper Standish would 
acknowledge this ; when to have killed memory with 
one blow, as he had killed that harmless, kindly life, 
was the one boon he craved, and craved in vain. 

# * * * # 

Early the next morning the Inspector was roused 
from a heavy sleep, the sleep of intoxication, by a loud 
knocking at his door. He opened bewildered eyes and 
gazed around. He had had bad dreams ; his head ached, 
his mouth was dry and parched. What had he dreamt ? 
What had happened ? Half-dazed and scarcely awake, 
he lifted himself up and demanded the reason of the 
summons. 

“ Will yer honor make haste an’ come down ? ” said 
the voice of his old servant. “ There’s two men from 
the barracks as is wantin’ to see ye immaydiately. It’s 
a terrible business. Murder, they sez.” 

Murder ! His face blanched. Was this his dream, 
or was the dream the result of a deed of desperation ? 
How his head ached ! What a fool he had been to 
drink so much. Just when coolness and skill would be 
required. 

“ I’ll be down in two minutes,” he called out. then 
sprang out of bed and looked at his clothes where they 
lay in a huddled heap. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 7 7 

On the cuff of his shirt was a crimson stain. He 
grew cold and sick as his eyes fell on it. Blood ! Good 
heavens ! how came it there ? Why had he not noticed 
it before ? 

Muttering a savage oath he seized the shirt and 
thrust it into one of the drawers of his chest. He hur- 
ried on some garments and went downstairs to inter- 
view his men. 

They were in his little study. One was the constable 
he had ordered to keep watch on the Bank as he passed 
the barracks on that mad gallop home, the previous 
night. 

The story was soon told. The man had seen or heard 
nothing suspicious, and had been relieved on his beat 
at six o'clock. It was then pitch dark and still rain- 
ing, but the wind had abated. He wondered that the 
light in the dining-room had been left burning all night, 
but thought that was the concern of the inmates. He 
had not gone down the lane, but once or twice had 
thrown the light of his “ bull’s-eye ” into its silent dark- 
ness. The storm was so bad he had been thankful to 
shelter under the portico of the principal entrance be- 
tween the intervals of his march to and fro. 

The second man then took up the tale. He had only 
been up and down the street once, when the door of 
the private entrance opened, and a female figure ran 
out and signaled him. It was the housekeeper. She 
seemed agitated. She said she had gone into the din- 
ing-room and found the gas burning. It was so unlike 
her master’s methodical habits that she remembered 
immediately his message to his daughter — he had some 
work to do, and would be in his office till midnight or 


78 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

later. Thinking that perhaps he had fallen asleep she 
went down the passage and tried the communicating 
door. It was locked. Then, unable to control her 
uneasiness, she ran upstairs to her master’s room. The 
door was ajar. She looked in. The room was empty, 
the bed undisturbed. Really alarmed now she rushes 
out to summon the policeman. He accompanied her 
to the door opening into the Bank premises. It was 
locked on the inside. He shook it, knocked at it in 
vain. It defied strength, and no notice was taken of 
his summons. 

Jasper Standish made rapid notes in his pocket-book. 

The housekeeper had then suggested trying the 
other door leading into the lane. They went there. 
He tried the handle, and, to his surprise, the door 
opened readily. They were in the manager’s private 
office. One glance showed there had been a robbery. 
Papers were scattered about, chairs overturned, the 
safe open. 

A scream from the housekeeper brought his eyes to 
the floor. She was kneeling down, supporting the 
head of her master. It was covered with blood. He 
was stiff and cold. 

Then Standish spoke for the first time. “ Dead ? ” 
he asked hoarsely. 

“ Murdered !” answered the constable. 


CHAPTER IX. 


A strange scene met the eyes of the Inspector when 
he entered the Bank half an hour later. Already some 
whisper of disaster had spread through the town. A 
couple of policemen were standing in front of the 
building, and a crowd of people were jostling, pushing, 
questioning, and exclaiming in various keys of inquiry 
and horror. 

In the office, where the constable had first discovered 
him, lay the body of the genial, kindly manager, who 
in popular parlance had been “ iv’ry one’s friend an’ 
niver the hard wurrd for anybody.” Alas ! No word, 
hard or soft, would ever pass those silent lips again. 

Dr. Dan, who had been summoned, was examining 
the wound. The sharp hook had pierced the brain. 
Death must have been instantaneous. He looked up 
as Standish entered. 

“ Good God ! this is horrible ! ” he exclaimed. “ To 
have left him last night jovial, laughing, cheery, and 
be summoned to see — this ! ” 

It seemed in no way strange to him that the Inspec- 
tor should look pale and unnerved, or shrink from 
touching that inanimate form. So few hours — and 
such a tragedy ! 

“ It must have been done for robbery. Look ! ” 
continued the Doctor, pointing to the disordered room. 
“ That’s how it was found. Villain’s work indeed. 

79 


8o The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

See that broken window and the bar ? There must 
have been a struggle. Well, that’s your work, Standish. 
I suppose we can remove him now ? ” 

“Yes, of course,” said Jasper hoarsely, glancing 
around at the faces of the housekeeper, the young 
servant, and the “bhoy,” who made up the establish- 
ment. 

“I shall require you all as witnesses,” he added 
sharply. “But first take the — body — away. Lay it 
on his bed. There will be an inquest, of course. 
Does his daughter know ?” he asked suddenly. 

“ No, sir,” said a quiet voice, unlike the brogue that 
was reveling in smothered gasps of horror round the 
room. The Inspector looked at the speaker. He saw 
a pale, set face, the dark fire of somber eyes, features 
rigid and impassive. 

“ Who are you ? ” he asked. 

“My name is Jane Grapnell. I am the house- 
keeper.” 

“ You can’t keep the matter from Miss Callaghan. 
She must know,” he said. He remembered the 
woman’s face. He had seen her sometimes on the 
occasion of his visits. “ Break it as gently as you can.” 

He turned away. Why did the woman look at him 
so ? And where had he seen a face resembling hers ? 
She woke some unpleasant memory, but he could not 
trace it to its fountain-head — yet. 

He busied himself with his note-book ! Would they 
never remove that stiff and silent figure ? He felt sick 
and faint, as his glance fell on the white face in its 
awful stillness, and the open eyes that seemed as those 
of an accuser. 


8r 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

He made a sign to one of his men. The women 
drew back. Dr. Dan lifted the white head, where the 
hair lay clotted and massed with oozing blood. The 
Inspector shuddered as he moved aside to let them 
pass. Not for untold gold could he have raised a hand 
to help in that ghastly task. His wild frenzy of blood- 
thirst and desperation had worn itself out. He was 
only conscious now of horror and of dread. A dull, 
numb sensation paralyzed his faculties ; always before 
his sight floated that mist of blood. 

He sank down on a chair and covered his eyes with 
a shaking hand. He tried to pull himself together. 
An awful ordeal lay before him. It would never do to 
betray weakness or fear. Why did that woman stare 
at him so ? What was she waiting for ? 

As the sad procession moved out of the room he 
seemed to regain his composure. He took down a de- 
scription of the room, the state it was in, the instru- 
ment with which the deed had been committed, the 
names of the servants. Then he shut up his book, 
and approached the safe. The keys were in the lock ; 
some notes and some small bags lay upon the shelves ; 
He closed and sealed the door, and did the same with 
the drawer of the writing-table. 

As he finished. Dr. Dan returned. The Inspector 
dismissed the servants and the policemen, then turned 
to the distressed and anxious practitioner. 

“ You saw him last,” said Dr. Dan. “ My God ! 
To think of our all walking coolly away, and this — to 
happen ! ” 

<e I left him here,” said Standish calmly. “ I ex- 
amined the fastenings, and spoke about that window 


82 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

being unsafe. He only laughed. There are his books, 
you see. I wonder if he did any work ?” 

“It was that cursed Donovan business,” muttered 
the Doctor. “ He was an avaricious old miser, and 
every one disliked him. You may be sure it got about 
that he had brought his money here. There were 
plenty to watch him. But — the devils ! — to take this 
honest, harmless life ! By all the powers, if you don’t 
make some one swing for this, I’ll know the reason why.” 

“ You may trust me to do my best,” said Jasper 
calmly. “The motive is plain enough. Of course we 
cannot tell how much money has been stolen, but I 
suppose his clerk could.” 

“ He’s very ill , it’s impossible for him to attend to 
anything.” 

“ The new one then ; he w T as to come to-day. 
Surely, from the books ” 

“ If the books had been made up. Don’t you re- 
member what poor Tom said ? He had to work at 
them ; he had been kept all day, paying and receiving 
money.” 

“Well, I know nothing about banking. But there 
would be sure to be entries somewhere of the sums 
received.” 

“I suppose so. My God ! it’s terrible. I can’t real- 
ize it. AY hat am I to say to that poor girl, and what 
will she do now ? Poor Tom ! I know he never saved 
a penny. His income was none too large either. Ah ! 
faith, it’s a sad day for us all ; friends and relatives. 
My heart aches, Standish ; we were boys together ; 
friends always. And it’s not as if he had died as I’ve 
seen men die : the gentle sleep — the parting word ” 


The Sin of Jasper Standish 83 

He walked to and fro, the tear3 starting to his eyes 
and rolling down his cheeks. “ A bitter blow — a bad 
day for me and all who loved him. To think of the 
cowardly trick ! Struck down without a warning, for 
the basest motive that ever made man criminal.” 

Standish rose somewhat suddenly. “ I can do noth- 
ing more here,” he said harshly. “ Fve taken notes of 
all that's necessary. I must see about the inquest next.” 

“ The inquest ! See about the murderer — d n 

him ! ” shouted Dr. Dan furiously. “ By all the saints, 
I feel as if I could choke the life out of him myself, 
if only I found him.” 

“ Of course I'll attend to that also,” said Jasper. 
•'* The gang that I suspect won't be hard to find. You 
can trust me. Doctor. He was — my friend, too.” 

The pallor of his face, the trembling lip, the un- 
steady voice, were to the unsuspicious Doctor as evi- 
dence of emotion, not of guilt. 

He wrung his hand in answering sympathy. “ Do 
your best, Standish. God forgive me for saying it, 
but I’ll not rest in peace until the ruffian is dis- 
covered. I’d spend my last penny to bring him to 
justice.” 

***** 

Dr. Dan remained behind to see Nora. She awoke 
at her usual time in blissful unconsciousness that any- 
thing had happened, that this day on which her sleep- 
filled eyes opened was to stand for all her life a black 
and awful landmark, a day from which all peace and 
joy of youth should flee, never more to return. 

Lazily she made her girlish toilet, wondering if Lyle 


84 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

was awake, wondering if a certain strange dream that 
haunted her memory was in any way prophetic. She 
had dreamt she saw a solitary magpie perched upon a 
stone, and as she looked the stone turned to a cross, 
and the cross seemed gleaming white above a grave— a 
grave set solitary and apart on a wide desolate moor. 
Then while still she stood and gazed, the bird of ill- 
omen flapped its long wings and rose with a strange 
cry ; it hovered above her head, circling round and 
round. She tried to frighten it away, but it always re- 
turned. Then with one last desperate effort she waved 
her arms and the bird’s wings dropped and changed to 
a uniform she knew only too well, and the beak and 
head became a face and the body a figure, and she was 
looking into the cold smiling eyes of Jasper Standish. 

Like all the Irish, Nora had a fair share of super- 
« stition. She went over the old distich her nurse had 
been wont to sing offthe prophetic magpie : — 

“ One for sorrow, two for mirth, 

Three for a marriage, four for a birth.” 

One for sorrow ! Did her dream mean sorrow ! 
But then she had not actually seen the bird, only 
dreamt she was seeing it. Perhaps that 

A sharp rap came at the door. “ Miss Nora, are you 
dressed ? ” 

“ Very nearly, Jane. What’s the hurry ? ” 

“ Dr. Kelly is below, Miss. He wants to see you.” 

“ To see me ? Whatever for ? Isn’t dad down ?” 

“ No, Miss.” 

“Well, tell the Doctor I’ll be with him in five min- 
utes — if it’s so very important. He won’t mind about 
my hair.” 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 85 

A few moments, and she was facing her old friend, 
laughter on her lips and in her eyes. 

“ Why, Dr. Dan,” she said, “ what on earth do you 
mean by bringing me down at this time of the morn- 
ing ? Doctor ! ” catching sight of his agitated face. 
“ What’s the matter ? What’s happened ? ” 

He held out his hands and drew her near him. He 
had known her when she was a little child. “ My 
dear,” he said pitifully, “be brave, becalm. I have 
bad news for you, Nora.” 

“ Father — he’s ill,” she cried quickly. 

“Very ill. There’s been an — accident.” 

She drew away, her face slowly whitening beneath 
the presence of fear. 

“ Tell me ! ” she whispered. “ He’s not — dead ? ” 

There was only silence. She felt herself answered, 
and gazed round in bewilderment, her limbs shak- 
ing. 

Dr. Dan put his arm around her. “He is happy 
and at rest. Try and think so. It will be terribly 
hard to bear — at first.” 

Then he broke down. A hoarse sob choked back 
even sympathy and tenderness. “ Oh, child,” he cried, 
“ I loved him too. And all I would have done for him 
I will do for you. Only, I can’t help you, I can’t com- 
fort yon.” 

“ How was it ? AVhere ?” she cried in a passion of 
entreaty. “ Why wasn’t I there ? You might have 
called me. He would have surely wanted to see me. 
Oh, dad! Dad!” 

“ Ah ! hush,” he murmured pitifully. “ It was not 
illness, it was not accident. Some dastard villain 


86 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

broke into the Bank last night and robbed it, and your 
father ■” 

“ Murdered ?” 

Her voice was only a whisper. The shock had dried 
her tears. She was conscious of a vague horror that 
seemed to freeze her blood and hold her in an icy 
grasp. 

Suddenly she swayed ; a strange little cry broke 
from her quivering lips. He caught her in his arms 
and laid her gently on the couch. 

Then a quiet figure stole in and knelt beside her. 
“ Leave her to me — now,” said a pleading voice. He 
stood aside. It was Jane Grapnell, who loosened the 
wrapper and chafed the cold hands, and applied all 
necessary restoratives. 

“It is only faintness,” she said, “and it won’t save 
her from what is worse — what is to come.” 


CHAPTER X. 


It was late that evening before Jasper Standish left 
his office and rode home. He had had a busy day. 
Xo arrest had been made, but whispers of suspicion 
were abroad. 

A murder so cold-blooded and brutal awoke universal 
indignation. It was the theme of conversation, the 
subject of every possible surmise. It interfered greatly 
with business and trade generally ; everything, in fact, 
except the public-houses, for much talk is dry work, 
and “glory be ! ” not unfrequently ends in a “ glass of 
porter/’ or the “laste little dhrop,” as restorative and 
consolation. 

Every sort of rumor found tongue, and found cre- 
dence. But how or whence one whisper stole from lip 
to lip, and was repeated with bated breath and shud- 
dering horror, no one quite knew. 

“ ’Twill be sure to come out at the inquest/’ they 
told each other, and ominous shakes of the head fol- 
lowed ; and Mrs. McGee assured Bridget Mooney that 
“ ’twas nothing more than she’d been expectin’. Xo 
good iver came out of sich close-fisted, tight-lipped 
manners, not to spake av thim as were too grand to 
spake the civil wurrd to their navbors.” 

Mrs. Mooney opined it was “a judgment on thim 
as weren’t satisfied wid their own payple and own folk, 

s; 


88 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

but must needs be havin' strangers and heretics to do 
for thim.” 

Altogether the gossips had a rare time of it that day, 
while the new clerk sat in the deserted office and sent 
and received telegrams, and interviewed the Inspector, 
and came to the reluctant conclusion that Mr. Callag- 
han had been more than a bit careless over accounts, 
for he could trace none of the money that had been 
paid in the last day or two ; and of Donovan’s there 
was no proof, not even a memorandum. 

It was little wonder that Jasper Standish looked 
fagged and worn when he reached his ht>me. He flung 
himself out of the saddle, and bade the stable-boy give 
the mare a good feed — she might be wanted again that 
night. Then he went in to his dinner, though eating 
seemed but a sorry pretense. In the middle of his 
meal a thought struck him. It blanched his cheek and 
set his nerves quivering. “ Fool ! fool ! And I've 
been away all day, and that drawer unlocked ! " 

He started to go up-stairs, then sat down again. 
Above all things, he must avert suspicion. How did 
he know that old Moll Murtagli was not a spy ? There 
was no trusting these cursed gossips. He finished his 
dinner, drinking only one glass of whisky to steady his 
nerves. He would need them of steel to-night. 

Calling to the old woman to clear away, he went up- 
stairs to his bedroom, taking the lamp with him. He 
threw a rapid glance round. Yes, of course, the old 
busybody had been there, “ tidying up,” as she called 
it. He shut the door and drew down the blind. Then 
he opened the drawer into which he had thrust that 
blood-stained shirt. None was there ! 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 89 

He stared aghast at the open space, littered with 
ties, collars and handkerchiefs, but there was nothing 
eise. Vain to turn and toss article after article. It 
was too large to escape notice. Some one had been to 
that drawer and removed the shirt. With curses dire 
and deep he closed it again. 

Perhaps he had made a mistake. It might not have 
been the top drawer into which he had thrust it in the 
confusion and terror of that morning summons. He 
pulled out the next. There were shirts in plenty there, 
but all fresh, unsoiled, immaculate. Not one had been 
worn since the iron of the laundress had smoothed them. 
The next — no, not anything but socks and vests, 
arranged with old Moll s careful tidiness. Who had 
touched that shirt ? In a sudden rage he strode to 
the door, but, with his hand on the knob, something 
seemed to whisper caution. If he showed anxiety, 
asked a question, the old crone might get suspicious. 
Supposing she had but taken it to wash, and he made 
a fuss, what would she think ? 

He turned back, and sitting on the edge of the bed, 
leant his head on his hands in dazed and desperate 
perplexity. What a trifle it seemed ! And yet men 
had gone to the gallows for just such a trifle. Just 
such a foolish, unconsidered incident had formed 
before now the first link in the chain of condemna- 
tion. 

To pass the matter over as unimportant would be 
best. A cut finger would account for it. But then, 
the finger should have been bandaged all this day. It 
was too late now to pretend an accident. 

“ Til take a look round to-night, after the old fiend 


90 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

has gone to bed/’ he said to himself. “ If she has only 
taken it to wash, it’ll be sure to be hanging up in the 
kitchen. But, d — n it ! I was forgetting ; she sleeps 
there.” 

He raved and cursed at the triviality of the thing, 
and his own impatience in face of that triviality. As 
yet, not a spark of suspicion had fallen in his direction. 
But that was only natural ; the people would as soon 
suspect the chief magistrate of the county as they 
would one so universally esteemed and popular as its 
inspector. Still, he must make an arrest or two, if 
only to give them something to cackle about. There 
must be no lack of zeal on his part while the deed was 
fresh in every one’s mind and tripping off every one’s 
tongue. 

“ That sour-faced devil will do for one,” he reflected. 
“ She’ll be watched pretty closely, and she must know 
it too. I can make out a good case of suspicion to 
begin with, and she’s none too popular here.” 

He rose and went over to the glass. Already it 
seemed to him there was a change in his face — some- 
thing sinister and furtive ; and in his eyes lurked fear. 

“ I must he on my guard,” he muttered. “ Once the 
inquest is over I shall breathe freely again. Fortu- 
nately, the matter is almost entirely in my hands.” 

He took out his note-book and went carefully over 
point after point. The coroner was a great«ally of his. 
It would be quite easy to direct his questions. Ho one 
could tell how long he had lingered behind the others 
on that night. He had frankly confessed his reason 
for staying ; also declared Mr. Callaghan had let him 
out at that side-door leading into the lane. His horse 


9i 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

had been waiting. The time between his leaving the 
Bank and reaching Moriarty’s would be asked. He 
had all that ready. Then he had called at the barracks 
purposely to carry out that tale of anxiety. And Sir 
Anthony and Dr. Dan could prove that he had warned 
the manager of the robberies committed by what was 
called the “ Foxy Gang.” It was composed of three 
men, all red-haired. They always wore masks. No 
one had been able to recognize their faces. 

He drew a deep breath, and put the book back into 
his pocket. He came to the conclusion that he would 
say nothing about the shirt. Best not to notice its 
disappearance. 

As he turned from the glass, a sudden tap came at 
the window. He started, and the cold dew of that 
fear that would henceforth be his shadow broke over 
his face. He stood motionless, staring <at the white 
blind. The window was shut ; the night was very 
still. What could have made that noise ? 

He thought of the old laurel tree without. Perhaps 
some stray branch had blown against the pane. Yet, 
no, there was not wind enough to stir a bough. Should 
he open the window and look out ? He felt for once 
in his life that he had not the courage to do it. He 
shrank from gazing into the darkness. A guilty con- 
science is never free from superstition. He felt him- 
self pursued by a ghostly vision — a phantom whose icy 
breath could chill the blood, and make courage weak 
as water. 

He seized the light, and left the room. There was 
work before him to-night ; a battle to be fought ; a 
wily foe to be bested. He would need all his strength 


92 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

of nerve, all the cunning of his brain. The price for 
which he had bartered his soul's peace must be paid to 
to save his honor in the sight of men. 

His honor ! He could have laughed at the ghastly 
mockery of that word. He, who before the sight of 
God and man, had forfeited all right to such a thing ! 
***** 

The light streamed out from the hall. His man was 
walking the little mare up and down. The sky was 
dark, save for a few stars glittering amongst drifting 
clouds. Jasper sprang to the saddle, and his cloak fell 
round him. 

“ Shall I be waiting to stable her, sor ? ” asked the 
man, touching a greasy cap. 

“No; I may be late. There’s no knowing. Leave 
the lantern as usual.” 

The man ran forward and opened the gate. “ It’s 
not to the town he’s going, anyway,” he said, as he 
watched horse and rider. “ Sure, an’ it’s a mighty lot 
av quare bizness he’s been afther lately — night-times 
too. I’m sorry for the poor blayguards whin he does 
catch thim. ’Tis a purty murderous timper Mister 
Standish can Jay hands on, whin he’s crossed any 
ways ! ” 

Then he went back into the warmth of the kitchen 
and the “ bit av supper ” awaiting him. Neither 
master nor man had glanced up at the old laurel tree 
with its spreading branches ; neither had seen a small 
impish face peering down through the screening leaves. 

That tree was just outside the bedroom window of 
Jasper Standish. One long crooked bough was rust- 
ling now in the silence of the deserted garden. Yet 
there was no wind. 


CHAPTER XI. 


Tragedy had suddenly crashed upon the peace and 
joy of an innocent household. 

About it moved the calm erect figure of the English 
housekeeper ; on her face a strange stillness, in her 
eyes a fierce light, Amidst all the turmoil and con- 
fusion of that awful time she alone had been composed 
and helpful. Shrieks, wails, tears, exclamations had 
passed her by as a summer storm passes over some 
strong and stately tree. Such unnatural want of feeling 
did not tend to increase her popularity. 

“ Indade, and she’s the strange woman, Biddy,” 
said old Katey Mulcahy, as she and Biddy Murphy 
performed the last offices when the inquest was over. 
“’Twasthe quare things as came out about her this 
day. Ah ! glory be ! — it’s not ineself ’ud care to be in 
her shoes. ’Tis the brand av suspicion that’s laid on 
her by ivery word she said, an’ the clever tongue av 
Mister Standish didn’t want for mailin’. Wasn’t that 
so, Biddy, machree ? ” 

“ Thrue for ye it was, Katey woman. Sure ’tis a 
strange time we’re havin’ here, and not a taste av 
anything cornin’ the way av us ayther. Jist ‘do yer 
work and be off wid ve.’ Many’s the times we’ve 
watched an’ worked togither, Katey agra, an’ steadied 
the pinnies on the eyes av the blessed corpse (the 

93 


94 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

heavens be their bed this night), and in all thim times 
narra a one that husband or widdy or orphan wudn’t be 
saying * Biddy, dacint woman, it's yerself that’s needin' 
the little dhrop to kape upyer strength an' yer sperrits 
this blessed day.' An' that’s the thrue wurrd I’m 
spakin’, as yerself can hear me witness, Katey Mul- 
cahy.” 

“Dade, thin, I can. It’s not Miss Nora’s fault, the 
darlin’. It’s jist worn out wid grief an sorrow the 
poor orphan is, as inyone could see wid half an eye in 
their heads. An’ the English young lady — she's too 
grand to be troublin' about the likes av us. But it’s 
that stuck-up housekapin' hussy that’s to blame in the 
matter. A mighty tight hand over the kays she has, 
Biddy. An' it’s niver a dhrop or sup she puts to her 
own lips save in the matter av tay or water, so Sally 
told me.” 

“ An’ Sally's the truthful gurl, as I’ve good cause to 
know, for isn't she my brother-in-law’s only child, an' 
a rare handy little craythur, an,' oh, the wonderful 
cook ! 'Twas jist cryin’ her two eyes blind she was in 
the kitchen. She’ll niver git sich a place agin, she 
says — God forgive ineself, I was near quarrelin’ wid her 
mother once for lettin’ her go to sarvice whin I’d the 
chance av gettin' her into as tidy a bit av bizness as ye’d 
want at the dhraper’s in Tallow Street. But ’twas sarvice 
she was bent on, an’ sure Sally thought herself a quane 
intirely wid twelve pounds a year and Miss Nora givin’ 
her the caps an’ the aprons. Mother av Heaven ! ’tis 
a sad day for us, as I was sayin’.” 

A sad day indeed. The forerunner of many days, 
sadder and more troubled, yet to follow. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 95 

The examination at the inquest had led to the ex- 
pected and only possible verdict — “ Wilful murder 
against some person or persons unknown.” 

Old Donovan had been like a raving lunatic over 
the matter ; though the receipt given him by the de- 
ceased man was sufficient to prove he had paid in the 
money received for his farm. 

The “Foxy Gang” seemed to have disappeared 
entirely. No trace could be found of them. Dr. Dan 
offered £50 and Sir Anthony £100 for information or 
discovery of the criminal. 

A new manager had been hastily appointed, and the 
premises were being carefully examined in view of extra 
security. The door leading into the lane was to be 
bricked up, the window re-barred. But all these precau- 
tions could not restore the dead man to life, or throw 
any light on the dark mystery of his tragic end. 

Dr. Dan bore Nora off to his own house, and Lyle 
went back to the hotel. The gloom and horror of the 
tragedy rested over the little town like a heavy pall. 
Perhaps somewhere among them the murderer stalked 
unknown. Perhaps at shop, or stall, or bar, some of 
that fatal “ blood money ” was being passed or ex- 
changed. Dark suspicions were at work, and as the 
gloomy winter nights drew in the talk at every fireside 
and in every cabin for miles around was of the bank 
manager's murder. 

Meanwhile, Nora Callaghan, crushed and heart- 
broken, remained under Dr. Dan’s kindly care. Her 
father had left no will, but as she was the only near 
relative he possessed, she would have what little money 
there was, and all his household belongings. Lyle 


96 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

Orcheton insisted that her friend must henceforth share 
her home, and the girl consented for a time to do so. 
She was quite unable, in the first shock of grief, to 
think or act for herself in any matter. 

It was while rumor was at its height, and popular 
prejudice running amuck against common sense, as is 
not unfrequently the case, that the young English 
lady suddenly astounded the town and gave the gos- 
sips fresh food for talk. She announced that she had 
engaged Jane Grapnell to be her housekeeper at the 
Hermitage. 

The news created quite a stir. Never had tongues 
so wagged and whispered. Never had gossips so tooth- 
some a morsel of scandal to chew and digest. Mrs. 
McGee held perfect levees on the strength of it, and 
Sally, the Bank servant, was suddenly the most desir- 
able of all domestics. Everything she knew and could 
tell of Jane Grapnell was sought, treasured, and re- 
peated. Every trait of that unfortunate woman’s 
character was received with significant glances and 
ominous shakes of the head, and muttered “ The likes 
av that ” ; “ Ah ! glory be, *tis she has the black dhrop 
in her heart ; ” and various other expressions familiar 
to this frankly critical nation. 

“ Can any good come out of— England ? ” was the 
popular query. Every one had known that letting the 
Hermitage to English folk would mean bad luck, and 
if poor Mr. Callaghan, the good honest gentleman, had 
only kept to Irish servants and made Miss Nora keep 
to Irish ways, why never a taste of this bad work would 
they have had. 

So ran the tide of popular opinion, all unguessed by 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 97 

those so discussed and criticized. Jane Grapnell her- 
self was the least suspicious. A woman carrying a dark 
secret in her heart, burdened with a trouble that she 
must fight against single-handed was not a woman to 
concern herself with village gossip or idle stories, or 
vague hints dropped by the curious. 

She thanked Heaven on her knees when Lyle 
Orcheton offered her the place of housekeeper at the 
Hermitage. She had strong reasons for wishing to re- 
main in this part of Ireland, and it might .have been 
difficult to procure a situation in a good family. The 
matter was simplified by Lyle’s offer, and she was duly 
grateful. Besides, she would not be separated from 
her beloved Miss Nora yet awhile. 

So while tongues wagged and heads nodded, she took 
no notice of these mysterious signs of public opinion. 
She had far more important duties to occupy her time ; 
far deeper concerns to fill her mind than what Mrs. 
McGee said, or Bridget Mooney thought, or Sally the 
cook babbled over the teacups. 

Trivialities that are all-important to small minds, 
possess no concern at all for those preoccupied by grave 
and critical interests. If Jane GrapnelTs head was still 
held high, if her eyes were averted from prying glance 
and meaning nods, it was only because she really noted 
nothing of their significance. Her days were given up 
to the care of her young mistress. At night she slept 
in her room, for Nora’s nerves were in such a weak and 
over-strained condition that it was impossible to leave 
her alone. 

The cook and housemaid at Dr. Dan’s were both 
Iriah, and had all the superstitions and prejudices of 

7 


98 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

their race and class. They liked Jane no better than 
their neighbors of the town liked her, and when she 
came into the kitchen made no secret that her com- 
pany was less desirable than her room. 

One evening, about three weeks after the murder, 
Jane went downstairs to get some milk for Nora. She 
had to pass through the kitchen on her way to the 
pantry. It was vacant. One of the servants was hav- 
ing her “ evening,” the other had been sent out with 
some medicine from the surgery, that was wanted in a 
hurry. 

Jane glanced round. It was the first time she had 
found it tenantless. She brought the milk in, and put 
it on the table while she looked for a glass. 

As she stood, holding open the cupboard door, a 
short quick rap came at the window. She glanced in 
its direction, but the blind was down and she could see 
nothing. Wondering if it meant summons or signal 
she approached and raised the blind. A small impish 
face looked in at her. She unlatched the window and 
opened it. 

“Who’s there ?” she demanded. 

“Sure thin, don’t ye know me?” piped a thin 
voice. “Mickey Doolan it is; an’ it’s thrying to git 
spache av ye these last ten days I’ve been. I’ve some- 
thing to tell ye. Whin can ye come out ? ” 

“ Can’t you tell me now ? ” 

“ It wud take too long intirely. Can ye come to the 
little wood beyant the town ? T, U be there on the 
shtroke av midnight.” 

“Is it really — important ? 

“ Important ! By the saints, it’s life aqd death and 


The Sin ot Jasper Standish. 99 

damnation it’s mailin’ ; an’ no name I’ll be spakin’ but 
one ye knoiv. Him as ye tould me to watch ! ” 

‘•I’ll be there.” Her voice shook with eagerness. 
“ Twelve o’clock, is it ?” 

t( That same. Don’t let inyone know yer out, or 
ivery soul in the place will git wind av it by to-morrow’s 
noon.” 

“ Trust me. Now go.” 

She closed the window and went back to the kitchen. 
“ If it should be!” she cried fiercely; her eyes 
aflame, her cheeks one burning glow of excitement. 
“ Oh ! if only one end of the thread comes my way, 
the rope shall yet be spun that I have sworn to knot 
round that villain’s throat ! ” 


L. of C. 


CHAPTER XII. 


Only when she returned to Nora’s bedroom did Jane 
Grapnell remember the difficulties that lay in the way 
of keeping her promise. If the girl was wakeful 
or restless, she would not be able to get away un- 
observed. 

True, there was the sleeping draught Dr. Dan had 
prescribed for these fits of insomnia. She might give 
her that. She must. At whatever cost, she must 
learn what Mickey had to tell her. 

She glanced anxiously at Nora. Wide-awake, fever- 
ish, tossing from side to side. No signs of slumber. 
She resolved to administer the draught at ten o’clock. 
It generally gave six hours of deep sleep. Dr. Dan 
was averse to her taking it often, for fear the habit 
would become habitual. But Jane felt that the situa- 
tion was too important for scruples. 

She was well aware now of the ways of the house- 
hold. She knew she could get out through the back 
entrance quite easily, and by taking the key let herself 
in again. 

At ten o’clock she gave the medicine, measuring it 
carefully into the girl’s glass of milk. It was perfectly 
tasteless, and Nora suspected nothing. In less than 
an hour she was sound asleep, her breathing calm 
even as a child’s 


ioo 


IOI 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

Then Jane changed her skirt for an old black cloth 
one, put her boots ready to carry in her hand, slipped 
a box of matches into her pocket, and sat down to 
wait with what patience she could till all the house 
was quiet. The servants went up to their room shortly 
after ten o’clock. Dr. Dan, when he was at home, as 
happened to-night, usually retired about eleven. She 
heard him bolt the front door, and then come up to 
his own room on the other side of the landing. 

In half an hour she must leave. The wood Mickey 
spoke of lay just on the outskirts of the town. It was 
waste ground — an ill-drained, dark, uncanny spot, shut 
in by trees, thick with weeds and brambles. She could 
reach it with quick walking in twenty minutes, but 
her impatience was so great that she resolved to start 
at the half-hour. She drew a screen round the little 
low chair bedstead on which she slept, and put the 
shaded night-light on the mantelpiece. If Nora should 
wake, she would not know that Jane was not in her 
usual place. The lemonade and barley water were on 
a little table by the girl’s bed. As a rule she never 
called Jane up at night, but attended to herself. 
Surely this night of all others she would not need her 
services. 

Wrapping herself in a shawl, which she drew Irish 
fashion over her head, Jane softly opened the door. 
All was quiet. She listened for a moment before ven- 
turing down-stairs — not a sound anywhere. Softly she 
stole across the landing. Her stockinged feet made 
no noise on the carpet. The stairs did not creak as 
she cautiously descended. On reaching the hall she 
struck a match, for fear of stumbling in the pitchy 


102 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

darkness, then passed swiftly along to the door that 
led to the kitchen. A moment, and she was at the 
outer door. The key was in the lock as usual ; she 
turned it easily and withdrew it, slid back the bolt and 
was in the little yard that gave egress to the street. 

The night was very dark. There was a threatening 
of rain in the chill misty air and the lowering clouds. 
The street was quite deserted. As she listened, she 
caught the echo of a policeman’s tread far up, but she 
could see no one. With beating heart she hurried on, 
taking the least frequented thoroughfares. 

The distance seemed endless to her impatience, but 
at last she reached the wood and halted at its entrance. 

It was a lonely spot. For the first time a touch of 
fear chilled her. 

To be alone, unprotected, in such a place, at such an 
hour, held something of risk. Where had the boy 
meant her to meet him ? Surely not in the heart of 
the wood, under those dark and serried ranks of firs ? 
She started. A low whistle sounded just above her 
head. In a second a lithe form swung itself down 
monkey fashion from bough to ground. Mickey 
Doolan was by her side. 

“Whisht ! We’ll kape here, under the trees,” he 
whispered. “ Sure, it’s afraid of the very shadows I’m 
gettin’. Oh, the terrible bad man he is ! An’ what 
to do wid him bates me.” 

“You’ve discovered something ? ” 

“ Missis Grapnell, it’s the thrue wurrd I’m tellin’ ye 
this blessed night, as I’m a living sowl. He’s had 
something to do with the Callaghan 

at the Bank.” 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 103 

She stood still, as if turned to stone. “ What are 
you saying ? What proof ” 

“ Proof, is it ? Well, whin the time comes Pm not 
wantin’ for that same. Listen. There’s a tree mighty 
convaynient to his bedroom windy. [We won’t be 
naming names.] And now an’ agin I’ve made bould 
to climb up that same ould laurel, an’ take a peep into 
the room, jist to see what my gintleman was up to, 
whin he niver dreamt a livin’ sowl had an eye on him. 
Most times I only seed he was heavy wid the dhrink, an’ 
sthaggerin’ about the room for all the wurrld like a 
stuck pig. But the morning av the day whin he went 
off all av a hurry wid his men I happened to be jist 
lookin’ round, an’ the ould woman was safe in the 
kitcliin’, an’ the stableman, sure he was off to get the 
news, an’ I slipped into the house an’ up to the bed- 
room, knowin’ it wud be more than iver ould Moll Mur- 
tagh cud do to catch me. I looked here an’ I looked 
there — ’twas all in the height av confusion, an’ something 
drew me straight to the chest av drawers, an’ I opens 
thim, an’ what do I see ? As I’m alive an’ spakin’ this 
blessed minute, it was nothing less than the fine white 
shirt he’d been afther wearin’ that same night when 
the poor ould gintleman was sthruck down, an’ — 
whisht ! give me yer ear close ; it’s murderin’ me he’d 
be av he knew what I’m sayin ’ — the cuff was all reel 
withhlood! There’s for ye. Trimblin’are ye ? Well, 
it’s meself was shakin' like the laves above us when I 
made the discovery. Sez I, ‘ Mickey,’ I sez, ‘ there’s 
bin bad work here, an’ ye’ve chanced to light on it ; 
an’ av ye’re wise it’s the silent tongue an’ the cute brain 
that’ll sarve ye now.’ An’ I thought av you, ma’am; 


104 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

an* that it might be worth the matter av a sovereign 
or two av I tould ye about it, for two heads is better 
than a single one any day.” 

“Yes, yes. I’ll give you a sovereign to-night. But 
go on. What did you do with the. shirt ? ” 

“ I tuk it — though I was mighty feared all the time. 
I tuk it — an’ I hid it in a safe place that I know av. I 
got out at the windy, an’ divil a sowl knows I was 
near the place, an’ himself has nivir axed for me. 
Not that that’s to be wondered at, for sure he’s been 
in a mighty pother over the Bank murder. Now if 
ye’ve anither bit av gowld to spare, it’s meself can put 
ye on the thrack av anither av his saycrets. It’s a 
quare thing, an’ it bates me intirely how I got hold av 
it. There’s a boy I’m friendly with — a rare omadhaun , 
an’ servin’ as giniral help to ould Benjy Myers, the 
miser — him as they sez is a Jew, an’ lends money at 
cint per cint — whativer that manes. Sure he’s as 
mane as the divil, an’ the gossoon he tould me he airs 
his sov’rins in the sun for fear they’d be gettin’ light 
wid lyin by in his chest.” 

“Yes, yes,” she interrupted; ‘‘but what of the 
other secret ? I’ll give you another gold piece if it’s 
worth anything, I promise you.” 

“It’s this, thin. Misther Standish owed ould 
Myers a power av money. Now it’s the talk, isn’t it, 
that there was money tuk from the Bank that night 
the ould gintleman was kilt. An’ who’d be likely to 
take it but thim as naded it, an ’must have it? Ye 
can’t go beyant that.” 

She stopped aghast at the sudden light thrown on an 
act of desperation. Here, indeed, was motive. But 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 105 

where was proof ? A weak woman, a half-witted boy, 
and at stake the life of a man conscienceless and reck- 
less, with unlimited power and influence at his back. 
How could they hope to bring this crime home to him ? 

“ If it could be proved that he had the money ?” 
she said hoarsely. 

Mickey scratched his head and looked doubtful. “ Ah ! 
sure an he’s too cute for that. Anyways, I’ve done 
my best for ye, ma’am. An’ be the powers ’tis careful 
ye’ll have to be, an’ saycret, too, for av Misther Stan- 
dish got a hint av what I’m afther tellin’ ye to-night, 
’tisn’t my life, nor maybe yours either, wud be safe 
from the pains av eternity much longer.” 

“ You say you’ve buried the shirt ?” 

u In a wooden box in the ground. It’s meself alone 
us knows the place.” 

“ Mickey, we must work together. I’ll pay you well 
for all that you find out. Besides, there’s the reward. 
Yon shall have that too — every penny.” 

“ Saints in glory ! What are ye say in’, ma’am, at 
all ? The reward ? Why, ’tis the richest man in Rath- 
furley I’d be. All that money ! Wurrah deelish ! 
It’s surely drainin’ I am.” 

“ Hush ! ” she said cautiously, for in excitement he 
had raised his voice. “ For Heaven’s sake be careful. 
Keep guard on your tongue night and day.” 

“ Sowl av Saint Peter, ’tis lock an’ kay will be on me 
lips from this blessed night— an’ to-day’s Friday. 
God betwixt us an harm ! ” 

“You may well pray that,” she said gravely. 
“ We’ve a dangerous man to deal with, and God alone 
can prove the right and punish the wrong. It’s not 


106 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

his first crime, Mickey. Maybe it won’t be his last. 
Now I must go back. How can you let me know if 
you find out anything more ?” 

“ I’ll watch the ways av it. Trust Mickey Doolan, 
ma’am. It mustn’t be known as we’re matin’ each 
other.” 

“ No, no. Next week I’m leaving the doctor’s to go 
to the Hermitage with Miss Nora.” 

“ Sure, there’ll be convayniences there more than 
enough. Ah ! — musha — the blayguard ! Little he’s 
drainin’ that the poor omadhaun he’s kicked an’ cursed 
this many a day is on the thrack av his evil ways. I 
wndn’t have the sins av thim on me sowl for the wealth 
av the three kingdoms ! ” 

He crossed himself hurriedly, and then disappeared 
as suddenly as he had come. 

The night had grown darker. A fine soft rain was 
falling. Jane drew her shawl closer, and hurried out 
of the wood and back to the town. 

She was trembling with agitation. The awful dis- 
covery on which she had stumbled usurped her mind to 
the exclusion of all else. Mechanically she took her 
way up the long straggling street, tripping over rough 
stones or stumbling into pools and mud. The rain fell 
faster, the clouds darkened overhead. Before she 
reached the doctor’s house she was wet through. 

With shaking fingers she unlatched the gate, and 
groped her way to the back door. 

It was not easy to find the keyhole in that inky 
darkness, and her cold hands slipped over the surface 
of the wood. At last she got the key into place, 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 107 

turned it, and stood within. As she* re-locked the 
door, a light suddenly flashed in the passage. 

“ Who’s there ? ” challenged a stern voice. 

She turned hastily ; the shawl slipped from her 
white face. Standing at the end of the passage was 
Dr. Dan ! 


CHAPTER XIII. 


Amazement and consternation were visible on the 
doctor’s usually genial face. 

“Jane! Good heavens, woman, where have you 
been at this time of night ? And look at the state 
you’re in ! ” 

The water was dripping from her soaked shawl and 
her shabby skirt ; her boots were heavy with mud and 
clay. She stood motionless, wondering how she could 
explain her absence, seeing suspicion and displeasure 
growing stronger every moment in the eyes fastened 
on her face. 

“ I can’t explain,” she said at last. “ Whatever you 
think, sir, I can’t help it. I had to go out — to meet a 
friend. It was better no one should know. I took the 
key to let myself in. That’s all I can tell you.” 

“ This is very extraordinary behavior,” he said sternly. 
“ If you were a young, indiscreet girl, I should know 
what interpretation to place on it. But a woman of 
your years, and ” 

“ And appearance, sir,” she interpolated. “ Don’t 
spare me. I have no woman’s vanity to be hurt by plain 
speaking. ” 

“ And appearance, then, must surely be actuated 
by some very strong motive to lay herself under sus- 
picion. If you cannot justify your conduct to me, I 
108 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 109 

shall feel in duty bound to lay the facts before Miss 
Orcheton. I do not consider you a safe person to be 
in her service. Why have you left your young mis- 
tress alone, after my instruction to the contrary ? 
That you are bound to explain.” 

A piteous look came into the dark troubled eyes. 
She clasped her hands convulsively. “ Oh, sir, for 
pity’s sake don’t misjudge me. There’s no one I love 
like Miss Nora; It would break my heart if she thought 
badly of me. Can’t you trust me ? You’ll know the 
reason some day ; so will she. But now my lips are 
sealed ; I can’t speak. It’s my life against my silence.” 

Such truth, such conviction, were in her agonized 
face and pleading voice, that against his better judg- 
ment Dr. Dan felt the woman was at least sincere. 

“This is all very queer and very mysterious,” he 
said. “ What reason have I to believe you are not 
doing something — dishonorable ? ” 

“ You have no reason,” she said very quietly, “ only 
my bare word, the word of a suffering and much- tried 
woman. Miss Nora would believe me, perhaps even 
Miss Orcheton ; but I must leave you to deal with 
them. Only,” — and her voice grew firm, and there 
was that in her face that gave its own testimony to 
truth — “only, if you turn me from here, if you shut 
the door of kindness and helpfulness so newly opened, 
there will be others to suffer, innocent lives sacrificed. 
My God ! ” and the firmness broke into agony, “ what 
is there in human nature that one soul won’t and can’t 
take another on trust ? that it’s always ready to believe 
the worst, if the best stands unproved, for judgment ?” 

“ Faith ! Jane, you’re right. What is there ? I’ve 


no 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

got two sides of you before me to-night. One leads to 
suspicion, the other to trust. If I’m anything of a 
judge of character — and Heaven knows I’ve seen plenty, 
all grades, sorts and conditions — well, I’m inclined to 
put the trust before the suspicion. I’m sure you love 
Miss Nora too well to lightly risk dismissal from her 
service. I’ll take your word you were out on no 
harm ; but, mind, no more of this sort of thing. I 
hate mysteries and secrets. No good ever came of 
them, nor ever will. Get off with yourself and change 
those wet clothes, or you’ll be ill. It’s lucky I came 
across you, and not one of the servants, or you’d not 
have got off so easily.” 

Tears rushed to the woman’s eyes ; her lips quivered. 
“God reward you, sir,’ she said. “You’ve saved 
what’s more than life to-night ; and you’ll not find me 
ungrateful.” 

She moved on to the kitchen to get a candle. Dr. 
Dan went back to his own room more puzzled than he 
liked to acknowledge. 

* # * * * 

All the joyous anticipations with which Lyle Orche- 
ton had looked forward to that “ settling down ” into 
the Hermitage had been chilled and overcast by this 
awful calamity that had befallen her friend. 

The happiness and light-heartedness that had been 
hers so brief a while before, had changed to sorrow. 
It was a grave and very subdued face that superin- 
tended the arrangements of the new home, that di- 
rected and watched the gradual change from confusion 
to order. 


Ill 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

In Nora’s room many tears were shed at thought of 
all that had chanced since that pretty chamber had 
been planned for her visits. It was ready now — draped, 
curtained, furnished — as lovely and dainty, as perfect 
taste and loving hands could make it ; ready — and on 
the morrow Dr. Dan had arranged to drive Nora over. 
It would be Christmas Eve ; and Lyle had implored 
that they might be together. It would be sad and 
melancholy, — a time of memories and reminiscences, — 
but amidst new surroundings, and ministered to with 
all the devotion of loving hearts, she hoped the poor 
girl would suffer less. 

The mystery of her father’s death preyed on her 
mind incessantly. She seemed unable to shake it off ; 
and however a conversation began, it always drifted 
back to that one point. Indeed, the awful tragedy 
had cast a gloom over the whole town and neighbor- 
hood. Mrs. O’Neil had postponed her New Year’s 
Eve party. She could not “ fancy a dance,” she said, 
“ without her two favorites being present.” She had 
been to and fro to the Hermitage to help Lyle during 
these last few days of “ fitting up,” so purely the pre- 
rogative of feminine hands. Workmen had been dis- 
missed. All was finished save a few trifling details that 
were left till over the New Year. 

Mrs. O’Neil and Lyle Orcheton stood before a blaz- 
ing fire, contemplating the room on which such loving 
thought had been lavished. 

“ It is certainly charming,” said the genial Belle. 
“ If anything could minister to a mind diseased, and 
pluck out a sorrow by the roots, it should be surround- 
ings like these. All said and done, Lyle, my dear, you 


1 1 2 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

English can give us points in the way of arranging 
rooms, whether they’re purely feminine like this, or 
useful and ornamental .like the hall, or ‘ livable ’ like 
your dining-room. This is simply perfect.” 

“ Poor Nora ! ” sighed Lyle. “ If only we could 
rouse her or interest her in anything ! It’s dreadful 
the way she broods over her father’s death. It seems 
as if she’d never get over it.” 

“ You must give her time.” 

“ That’s so hard to believe. A year is long in pass- 
ing, though short to look back upon. But I’m keep- 
ing yon standing. Shall I ring for some tea, and we’ll 
have it here ? ” 

“ Do, my dear ; it will be delightfully cozy. I or- 
dered the carriage to come round for me at six o’clock. 
We have the best part of an hour before us for a gos- 
sip. I forgot, though, you’re not much inclined that 
way.” 

Lyle smiled. “ But I like to hear you talk,” she said. 

“ We’re great people ’for that, my dear. By the 
way, I hear you are bringing Nora’s housekeeper here. 
Is that so ? ” 

“ Yes,” said Lyle. “ I am rather fond of Jane ; I 
pity her too. She is a woman who has lived through 
some great sorrow. I wish sometimes I could break 
down that iron reserve of hers ; but it seems impos- 
sible.” 

“I have a fancy that I have seen her before,” said 
Mrs. O’Neil thoughtfully ; “but she always seems to 

avoid me. She reminds me of Lyle, did you 

ever hear of that little maid of mine who disappeared 
so suddenly ? ” 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 113 

“ No. Why do you ask ? ” 

“That woman brings her back to my memory. I 
was very fond of the girl. 1 brought her over from 
England. I treated her more as a companion than a 
maid. And, quite suddenly, she ran away.” 

“ Ran away ! With any one, do you mean ? 

“No ; that’s the strange part of it. Had there ~een 
a lover in the case, I should not have been so surprised ; 
but she was a quiet, well conducted girl — never a breath 
of scandal about her. I felt deeply hurt at the time ; 
it seemed so ungrateful.” 

“ And you say Jane reminds you of her ?” 

“ Of the time I engaged her — of Hester’s mother, 
I only saw her once. Has Jane a sister, do you 
know ? ” 

“ She has never spoken of any relative, either to 
Nora or myself. She was housekeeper at the school 
where we were, and Nora told me she offered to accom- 
pany her to Ireland ; in fact, seemed anxious to come.” 

“ Yet she knows no one in the country — has made 
no friends. I should like to talk to her, Lyle, if I 
might.” 

“ Certainly. When ? To-day she is not busy, I 
know. Shall I ring and ask her to come up here ?” 

“ I wish you would, my dear ; an unexplained 
mystery is so uncomfortable.” 

Lyle smiled. “ I am beginning to understand Irish 
people,” she.said. “ I’ll ring for tea, and send a mes- 
senger to Jane at the same time.” 

The room was dusk, save for the firelight, when Jane 
Grapnell entered it. Her eyes fell on Mrs. O’Neil lying 
back in the deep, cozy chair, and her colorless face 
8 


1 14 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

changed to a sickly gray hue. She stood by the door, 
her hand on the handle. 

“ You sent for me, miss,” she said. 

“ Yes, Jane ; Mrs. O'Neil wishes to speak to you.” 

“ I have been telling Miss Orcheton that you re- 
minded me of some one I had seen long ago — in Eng- 
land,” said Mrs. O'Neil. “ Of course, it may have 
been a relative. Have you a sister there ? ” 

“No, madam,” was the brief response. 

“ Do you know any one of the name of Sands ? ” 

“No one.” 

“ Ah, then I must have made a mistake. I once had 
a maid of that name, a great favorite of mine. Her 
mother But never mind. It can't possibly inter- 

est you, as you have no sister, you say.” 

“ This — this maid, madam, she has left your serv- 
ice ? ” 

The words fell stiffly from the stiff lips. The woman 
seemed to speak only by a strong effort. 

“ Oh, yes, long ago. It was a great disappointment 
to me. I have never found any one to suit me so 
well.” 

There was a moment’s silence, Lyle poured out a 
cup of tea, and handed it to her visitor. 

“ Shall Jane light the lamp ? ” she asked 

“ Not unless you wish. 1 like this dusk. 

The housekeeper had advanced into the room. She 
paused half-way between the door and the table on 
which stood the lamp. The red glow of the fire 
touched her white face, and showed her eyes strained 
and anxious. She looked if she longed to speak of 
something in her mind. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 115 

“ You need not wait, then, Jane,” said her young 
mistress. 

But the woman did not seem to hear. She went for- 
ward, fidgeted with the shade of the lamp, the matches, 
altered a chair, and then, crossing to the window, re- 
arranged a fold or two of the lace curtains. 

Lyle watched her with some surprise. There was a 
change in her manner, something altogether unusual in 
her loitering movements, her seeming inattention. 

“ Did you not hear me, Jane ?” she asked. 

The woman started, and left the window. 

“I — I beg your pardon, miss. I thought per- 
haps I mean, would Mrs. O’Neil like to ask any- 

thing more ? ” 

“ There is nothing more to ask,” said Mrs. O’Neil. 
“ I suppose I made a mistake in thinking you were re- 
lated to Hester, or could tell me anything about her.” 

“ No,” said Jane, in a cold, steady voice, “ I can tell 
you nothing.” 

“I am sorry,” said Mrs. O’Neil, turning her head 
towards the fire. “ One does not like to lose sight of 
an old favorite, even if she appears ungrateful.” 

“ Ungrateful ! ” The voice was hoarse and broken, 
Jane turned abruptly, “ She was never that ,” she 
burst out impetuously. “ There are things that can’t 
be explained, that look worse than they are. It is not 
fair to judge ” 

Then she remembered herself ; her profession of 
ignorance, her denial of Hester. Perplexity and dis- 
tress showed in her face. Without another word she 
left the room. 

Lyle and Mrs. O’Neil looked in wonder at each other. 


n6 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“How strange she was!” they exclaimed simul- 
taneously. “ I never knew her speak or look like that 
before,” added Lyle. 

“ Have you ever thought there was some — some 
mystery about her ?” asked her friend uneasily. 

“ No. She is very reserved and quiet as a rule. I 
never saw her display affection for any living soul hut 
Nora. But as to mystery ” 

“She is a woman with a secret,” said Mrs. O’Neil. 
“ It may be her own, it may be another person’s. 
And somehow, Lyle, I felt she was not telling me the 
truth. I believe she knew, or knows, something of 
Hester Sands.” 

A troubled look came into Lyle’s eyes. “ Then why 
should she deny ” 

“Oh, my dear, don’t ask me. Women of her class 
do strange things sometimes. There may be a family 
history — not exactly creditable to others, I mean. I 
am not including Jane ; any one can see she has known 
trouble, poor soul ! And perhaps she is too proud to 
speak of it. Well, no matter. Here I have been chat- 
tering away, and quite forgetting one important piece 
of news. Fancy ! Derrick is coming back for Christ- 
mas. I had a letter from him this morning.” 

Lyle bent a flushed cheek over her teacup. “ You 
must be very pleased,” she said. A sudden constraint 
had come over voice and manner. 

Mrs. O’Neil did not appear to notice it, however. 
She was fumbling in her pocket for a letter, which she 
at last produced. “There’s a message for you in it,” 
she said. “ I wonder if I can read it ?” 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 117 

Lyle stirred the fire, and the bright flames illumined 
the room ruddily. 

“ That will do,” said Mrs. O’Neil, opening the letter 
and turning over the first page. “ Let me see — um, 
um, nothing particular there * London hateful ; fog 
and cold and snow. My business is finally completed. 
I’m heartily thankful. I’ll have to go out to India 
sooner than I expected, but I’ll have a time in the old 
country first. I trust poor Miss Callaghan is getting 
over that terrible shock. How is her friend Miss Ly — ’ 
(crossed out, my dear) — ‘ Miss Orcheton ? If you see 
her, pray give my warmest sympathy and regards. I 
can understand how she will suffer with and for her 
friend ; her nature is so staunch and tender and true/ 
There, my dear, I think that’s all.” 

The firelight seemed to cast a particularly warm 
glow over Lyle’s delicate, clear cheeks ; hut all she said 
was, {i Thank you. I’m sure you’ll he very glad to have 
him back.” 

“ Yes ; but I can’t understand about his returning to 
India so soon. However, I’ll learn the rights of that 
from his own lips. I’m very fond of the boy, you know, 
Lyle. I’ve no child of my own, and he’s been as good 
as a son to me. I used to think once that Providence 
had treated me badly, leaving me neither son nor 
daughter to inherit all my money. But that was be- 
fore I found out that marriage means a mighty lot 
more than girls imagine. ” 

Lyle looked at her. The flush had died out of her 
face, her lips parted as if about to speak, then suddenly 
closed. Mrs. O’Neil drank off her tea and put the 
cup back on the silver tray. 


n8 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ Weren’t you happy ?” asked the girl softly. 

“ I married the wrong man. It was all done in a fit 
of pique and mad jealousy — a bit of a quarrel, high 
words, no patience, no waiting, no reason. That’s the 
way with us when we’re young. Before we know any- 
thing of men we set ourselves to judge them. We are 
too exacting. We haven’t learnt they need excuse as 
much — and more too — as ourselves. I’m telling you 
this, my dear, because I think you are rather inclined 
to be high-handed in the matter of lovers. You want 
them to come up to a standard of your own. Ah ! 
child, believe me, they never will. If they seem to, 
it’s only pretense ; and pretense is a bad beginning, 
and worse ending, for love.” 

“ Why did you marry at all ? ” inquired Lyle. “ Be- 
cause one man failed you, it was a poor revenge to take 
another less capable of satisfying your heart.” 

“ I was a hot-headed fool. Lovers I had by the 
score, and the best match in the county was Terence 
O’Neil, the man I married, and the worst was the man 
I loved. So our quarrel ended badly, and he went into 
the Army, and was ordered to some awful foreign place 
— West Africa, I think it was — and from that day to 
this I’ve never had word or sign from him.” 

“ But you’ve not forgotten ? ” 

“Ah ! my dear, it’s not easy to forget the man who’s 
made you unhappy. Every tear you shed is a tribute 
to his power ; every regret you breathe is a landmark 
in the journey that takes you further and further away 
from him.” 

Her bright eyes turned to the fire. Lyle watched her 
with deep interest. To have lived to forty and yet re- 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 119 

member one’s girlhood, and its vain love— how strange ! 
And how dull and hopeless it made life look to her 
young eyes, if pain and disillusion were forever its 
shadow ! 

She spoke impatiently, a little tinge of bitterness in 
her voice. 

“Why do we — love ? Why must we ?” 

Mrs. O’Neil’s suspiciously bright eyes were still fixed 
on the fire. 

“ It is unreasonable,” she said softly. “ But I sup- 
pose we can’t help it. I’ve often asked myself what we 
do love a man for, and upon my soul, child, I think it 
must be because he is the one creature who makes us 
suffer most, and cares least for the suffering.” 

“ Perhaps he can’t understand it.” 

“You mean he doesn’t realize that he has 
hurt ? ” 

“ I mean that women let imagination and emotion 
play a large part in their sufferings,” said Lyle. “ But 
a man fe.els only what hurts himself.” 

“Well, we’re foolish creatures, God knows! But 
really and soberly, Lyle, I don’t believe a man is worth 
half the heart-aches he occasions. If we could only see 
him as he is ” 

She paused — then laughed softly. “But when we 
can do that” she continued, “ we know him too well to 
care for him as he would like us to care. I speak from 
experience. My first wrinkle taught me philosophy. 
Believe me, child, if it’s ever a question of giving way 
to your feelings, or saving your features the wear and 
tear of emotions, choose the latter course. Tears and 
sighs may be a relief, but they don’t do an atom of 


120 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

good. They try your nerves and spoil your eyes, and 
then the man says, tf How you’ve gone off ! ’ ” 

Lyle smiled faintly. “That may be true, but to 
arrive at that stage of philosophy requires some ex- 
perience — and some suffering.” 

“True, my dear, it does. May yon never have to 
go through it. But it’s few who escape. Yes, child. 
I’ll have some more tea. Tea and talk — faith, they 
help a woman to bear a lot of trouble, though it’s 
rather bathos to say it.” 


CHAPTER XIV. 


A strange restlessness possessed Lyle on that 
Christmas Eve. Nora was not to come till the even- 
ing, when Dr. Dan would drive her over and stay to 
dinner. 

After luncheon she made up her mind to have a 
walk through the grounds. It was a mild sunny after- 
noon, such as often visits midwinter in Ireland ; a 
pleasant interlude between the rain and snow which 
have preceded, and may succeed it. 

Lyle felt the influence of the sunshine in a corre- 
sponding brightness of spirits. The gloom of these 
last miserable weeks was temporarily banished. Her 
head no longer drooped, her step had its old alertness. 
She walked swiftly over the trim walks, and past the 
beds so lately a wilderness of vegetation. She caught 
a breath of hidden violets from grassy nooks, a glint 
of scarlet or russet life that had defied storm and clung 
firmly to hough or stem or undergrowth. The warm 
air was like a dream of spring, the moss green as an 
emerald. 

As she penetrated deeper into the wood, it seemed 
to her full of surprises. Gleams of sky and river, 
peeps of swelling hills, the brown dimness of plowed 
fields, and everywhere trees— dark firs, glossy laurels, 
the stripped bare boughs of towering elms, the silvery 


122 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

bark of stately beech ; beyond all a vista of rosy 
gloom. 

Lyle stood still and gazed up that natural avenue. 
It was the first time she had been there. It seemed to 
lead indefinitely away beyond the boundaries of the 
park. The path beneath was mossy and weedgrown — 
a track between thick undergrowth that in summer 
was luxurions with honeysuckle and profligate beauty 
of wildflowers, ivy, and hedge brier. 

She resolved to follow the path and trace it to its 
furthest boundary. The rough Irish terrier that her 
father had given her rushed on ahead with frantic glee, 
scenting rabbits in the brushwood, or giving vent to 
ecstasies of fury at a squirrel in safe shelter of arching 
boughs. 

She'had walked for half an hour before she came to 
some broken wire fencing, behind which rose a hedge 
of ill -kept luxuriant shrubs. As yet there had not 
been time to do anything to the remoter portion of the 
grounds. The hedgerows were just as they had been 
in years of neglect, when no one had lived in the house, 
or cared for the place. 

The girl looked about her and then strolled slowly 
on. Suddenly she came to a break in the neglected 
hedge, where, hanging on broken hinges, was an old 
gate. It opened on a patch of waste ground, and be- 
yond that lay a little wooded copse. As she leant her 
arms on the rails, and surveyed the somewhat dreary 
spot, she saw a figure come out of the wood. 

Her heart gave a quick throb. She felt the blood 
fly to her cheeks, and then ebb back with a suddenness 
that made her faint. 


123 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

There came a quick step ; the gate was opened ; the 
sound of a voice remembered only too faithfully was in 
her ears. 

“ Miss Lyle, I am glad to see you ! What kind fate 
sent you to this lonely place ? ” 

He had used her Christian name, but her heart gave 
the slip no rebuke. He was holding her hand in both 
his own, as if to emphasize that gladness which had 
thrilled his greeting. She was looking back to the 
eyes that *she had told herself would never look into 
hers again with that untranslatable expression to which 
she had dared give no name. Yet the expression was 
there still, intensified by something deeper, more com- 
pelling, something that set her heart beating anew, and 
made the color rise afresh. 

She could think of nothing to say. The sunlight 
waved over the woods, the terrier barked interrogation, 
the coo of a wood-pigeon fell on the silence, but she 
could only stand there trembling like a leaf, with her 
hand closed in that warm clasp, her soul drinking in a 
rapturous draught of gladness from that deep, yearning 
gaze that held her like a spell. 

“ Oh ! Lyle,” said at last a voice, broken and husky 
with strong feeling, “ how I have missed you ! how I 
have wanted you ! I wonder if in all this time you 
have given a thought to — me ? ” 

Where had her anger vanished ? Where had those 
doubts at his unexplained departure, that hurt pride, 
that professed indifference all gone ? They melted as 
snow melts before the warmth of summer suns. The 
wood-dove’s coo was echoed by another. “ We two ” it 


124 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

seemed to say, and the echo of devotion gave back 
again “ We two.” 

“ Won’t you speak?” pleaded Derrick’s voice. 
“ Are you angry with me ? ” 

He was very close to her, and he half released the 
little hand that was now one tremor of agitation. 
Then she found voice. 

“ Angry ? no — of course not.” 

“ Are you a little bit glad that I have come back ? ” 

Instinctive coquetry, the defensive weapon with 
which feminine things love to protect their self-betray- 
ing weakness, would have framed a “No” on the 
trembling lips ; but something truer, deeper, more 
compelling forced “ Yes” — so faintly that it was little 
wonder if a lover’s triumph leaped to those devouring 
eyes. 

“ Oh ! Lyle, do you mean it ? — for I love you. My 
God ! how I love you ! All these endless weeks I have 
counted the hours till I could get back ; till I could 
say Sweetheart, you know what I would say.” 

She shook like a leaf in autumn storms, but his arms 
drew her to the warm shelter of his breast. 

“ I know,” she sobbed. “ Oh ! is it true, is it 
true ? ” 

“ As true as the heavens above ; as that you are 
here, where I scarcely dared dream you ever would be, 
Lyle.” 

She looked up. No rose so crimson as her flushing 
cheeks, no star so radiant as her sweet, shy eyes. 

His lips silenced the answer that her parted lips were 
so glad to speak. A passionate exultation thrilled him 
at their touch. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 125 

“ Oh ! I am too happy,” he cried suddenly. “ It 
doesn’t seem possible that you should care, should love 
me. Is it so ? You do ? Say you do ! ” 

“ God knows I do.” 

“ My sweet ! ” He caught her to his breast once 
more. 

For the first time in his troubled, stormy life Der- 
rick Mallory knew that he had touched the acme of 
pure happiness : that neither life nor death could part 
him from the memory of this one most perfect moment. 

Arm-in-arm they paced that moss-grown path be- 
neath the trees, heedless of time, of everything save 
just the rapture of this newborn joy, the bliss of being 
together. There was so much to say, to confess, to 
marvel at. Less for him, perhaps, than for her, see- 
ing that love to a girl’s awakening nature has in it an 
element of spirituality, untouched by man’s grosser 
eensibilities. 

No chill of warning, no touch of ill came to them. 
Hope achieved royal heights, on which each saw the 
other throned. Their love reveled in vague demands 
and assurances, in prophecies of happiness that knew 
no boundary. The wonder of it was like a halo about 
their heads. Lyle saw no mere ordinary mortal in her 
lover. He had been the first to break into that en- 
chanted garden where fancy had roamed and imagina- 
tion reveled. He stood to her as the reality of those 
vague and beautiful dreams, the dearer, the more 
heroic, the more wonderful because of some faint 
shadow of past trouble, at whose banishment he hinted, 
and of the exact nature of which she did not question 
yet. 


126 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

And he, looking down at the lovely face, lovelier 
still in the soft radiance of this new-found joy, felt as 
a man feels but once — that he was re-baptized in the 
fresh, pure current of a pure love. On radiant waters 
his soul floated Edenwards. 

He was awed by happiness — the more so because it 
had seemed almost unattainable so brief a time before. 

The distant woods were reddening to sunset, the air 
had taken the faint chill of departing day, the terrier 
had uttered many remonstrances at this monotonous 
promenade, with its interludes of prolonged halts, 
when Lyle suddenly remembered home duties and 
expected guests. 

“It must be late,” she said ; “ and Nora is coming. 
Did I tell you ? No. Oh ! I am expecting her to- 
night. Ah ! how selfish I am ! In my joy I forgot all 
her heavy trouble.” 

“ Take your joy, dearest, while you can. I am sure 
she would not begrudge it.” 

“ I know that. But, Derrick, I must go home now. 
And that reminds me. How did you chance upon 
this spot ? Where does that wood lead to ? ” 

“ To Aunt Belle’s plantation. Didn’t you know ? 
The house is about a half-mile further on. It was a 
grand discovery, my darling. Some good angel surely 
led my feet there to-day. I only arrived this morning, 
and felt too restless to stay in the house. I dared not 
call on you so soon — and that reminds me, sweetheart. 
Why is your father so prejudiced against me ? ” 

“ He thinks you were wild and reckless — that you 
had to part with your inheritance to pay your 
debts.” 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 127 

“ The latter part is true enough. But it wasn't my 
fault. As for being wild (how shyly you said it, sweet- 
heart ! ), I think I have a very fair record if my char- 
acter has to stand at the bar of his judgment. I suppose 
he's not prejudiced against my nationality ? Powers 
above, Lyle ! I've forgotten — something." 

The consternation in his tone alarmed her. 

“ What is it ? Oh, Derrick, nothing wrong — nothing 
you've done ? " 

A curious dusky flush came into his face. His voice 
was low and hurried. 

“ Wrong ? No. But, Lyle, have you thought ? I'm 
a Catholic. Sir Anthony has rather a prejudice against 
my faith." 

The girl turned very pale. “I know. Oh ! Der- 
rick, will there be trouble about it ? Your priests can't 
bear marriages with Protestants, and you are right 
about my father. He is prejudiced. The first thing 
he asked when I was so friendly with Nora was about 
her religion. But the Callaghans are Protestants, you 
know." 

“ Yes, dear — and I am not. What will he say ?” 

Their footsteps slackened. The first shadow of 
trouble had swept over their promised land. They 
looked into each other's eyes and read a new meaning 
in the tenderness — a something pleading, hopeful, yet 
touched with fear. 

“ There must be a way out of it," said Derrick at 
last. “ Must ? — why, there shall. We can't part — you 
and I — for sake of any prejudice in the minds of others. 
It’s impossible— now. Why, you’ve grown into my life, 
child ; taken root too deep for me to pluck you out 


128 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

whatever chanced. I felt you were mine the first hour 
my eyes met yours. Do you remember ? ” 

Another interlude, the sweeter for that first shadow 
on the sunshine of assurance ; then they went on in 
the gathering gloom, silent and half-afraid. 

“ I must see him ! ” said Derrick at last. “ He loves 
you too well to make you unhappy. I must persuade 
him that the obstacle is not insurmountable. All things 
give way to firmness and determination. Can you be 
firm, Lyle ? ” 

“Try me,” she said softly. “I would not disobey 
my father. Derrick, hut I could never be false to you, 
never marry any other man. When he sees that I mean 
it, I am sure he will yield.” 

“ You know him better than I do. Ah ! dearest, 
our bit of untroubled happiness was very brief, wasn’t 
it ?” 

She shivered suddenly. 

“As long as we love each other, life can never be 
Very sad — to me,” she said, but she felt, even as she 
said it, that an invisible sorrow hovered in the air. 
Its brooding wings fell with the brooding night ; they 
rested above her head and shadowed her path. 


CHAPTER XV. 


Before the bright fire in her bedroom Lyle Orcheton 
stood dressed for dinner. 

With the glorious prerogative of youth she was ab- 
solutely independent of fine clothes, toilet accessories, 
paint, powder, curling-tongs. Happiness had dowered 
her to-night with a new and more subtle beauty. The 
pure tints of her skin, the coils of her burnished hair, 
enhanced the simplicity of her soft black gown, worn 
in compliment to Nora’s heavy mourning. It was cut- 
square at the neck, and the beautifully-molded throat 
rose above it in smooth and unadorned perfection. Her 
arms were bare save for lace mittens which reached to 
the elbow. One arched foot rested on the fender-bar 
as she gazed musingly into the fire — a happy light in 
her eyes, a smile coming and going on her lips. 

She had forgotten that temporary shadow in the joy 
of remembering one splendid moment. Whatever 
chanced hereafter, nothing could mar that memory, 
nothing alter its wonderful truth. 

The sound of wheels on the graveled drive roused 
her from her reverie to action. She gave one rapid 
glance at herself, and then ran down to the hall to wel- 
come the arrivals. 

A bright wood fire burned in the open grate, the 
light of crimson-shaded lamps shed a warm glow over 
6 o m 


130 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

carvings and tapestry, cushioned lounges, soft rugs, 
palms, and hothouse flowers. A beautiful, luxurious 
picture, yet homelike withal. 

Nora gave a little cry of delight as she gazed around. 
“ Oh ! Lyle, how perfect you have made it ?” 

She had come to her friend determined not to grieve 
her with further manifestations of her own great 
sorrow ; determined that this first Christmas in Lyle’s 
new home should bear^no shadow of her casting. Pale 
and thin and worn she looked, but there was a new 
firmness in the young face, a new tenderness in the 
lovely eyes. 

“ Is it like what we planned ?” asked Lyle. Then 
remembering under what different circumstances it had 
been planned, she hurried on without seeming to notice 
the quivering lips. “ Confess I’ve worked hard. I 
sometimes thought it never would be finished in time. 
There are still lots of unopened cases waiting at- 
tention.” 

“ I’ll be able to help you now,” said Nora eagerly. 

“ Are you really stronger, better ? ” asked her friend 
anxiously. 

“ Oh ! yes. I feel quite well. Only Dr. Dan will 
dose me with tonics and other abominations.” 

“Now, Miss Nora, no taking liberties with my name 
and treatment,” said a cheery voice ; and the doctor, 
divested of overcoat and hat, appeared on the scene, 
followed by Sir Anthony. 

Lyle drew Nora down on to a great cushioned 
Chesterfield, and removed her hat and cloak with lov- 
ing hands. 

“ Jane has your dress all ready,” she said, “ but you 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 13 1 

can rest for five minutes. Then I’ll take you to your 
room. I hope you’ll like it. Mrs. O’Neil helped me 
a great deal. She has been so kind.” 

A sudden memory of some one else closely associated 
with Mrs. O’Neil brought a wave of rich color to her 
cheek, but Nora’s eyes were less observant than of 
yore. 

“ I am sure it will be lovely,” she said, with a kiss. 
4t Have you finished your turret yet ?” 

“ No. I wanted to wait for you.” 

“ That was sweet of you. It’s just the very thing 
I’ve longed for.” 

“ Dinner will be ready in a quarter of an hour,” said 
Sir Anthony suddenly. “I don’t know whether you 
young ladies have any toilet duties or not ? ” 

Nora rose. “ I won’t keep you waiting, Sir Anthony,” 
she said. 

“ I’m dressed, so I’ll help you, Nora,” added Lyle. 
And the two girlish figures flitted up the broad stair- 
case, arm linked in arm. 

•“ It’s perfectly wonderful ! What a transformation ! ” 
exclaimed Nora, as they crossed the softly carpeted cor- 
ridor where every nook held something of beauty in the 
shape of vase or picture or tapestry. But when Lyle 
threw open the door of Nora’s bedchamber, her cry of 
rapture ended suddenly in a little sob. 

“ It is too good of you. Oh ! Lyle, what a gem of a 
room — and all my old treasures !” 

It was the sight of those old treasures, most of them 
gifts from her dead father, that brought a sob to her 
throat, a sudden mist to her eyes. 

But Lyle would have no weeping. “ Dear, you must 


132 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

not give way,” she whispered tenderly. “You have 
grieved enough. Try to think he is safe and happy ; 
that he loves you still ; that all is for the best.” 

“I am trying. Indeed, Lyle, I don’t want to cast a 
gloom on your new life here. Ah ! Jane, thank you. 
Yes, I must make haste. My hair will do, I think. 
I dressed it before I left.” 

She dried her eyes, and let Jane remove her dress 
and boots. Lyle sat down in the big basket chair by 
the fire, and waited. Nora’s black gown was like her 
own, save for some bands of crape round the skirt and 
outlining the square of the bodice. 

She looked very sweet and fair ; the soft, clinging 
folds just suited her slim young figure, and like Lyle 
she wore no jewel or ornament. 

“ But this is all much too grand and beautiful for 
me,” she said, glancing round from the white rugs to 
the white bed, draped in lace over blush-rose silk, the 
window hangings and pictures, the toilet-table and 
wardrobe of white enameled wood, the big cushioned 
sofa, the pretty combination bookshelf and writing 
table. 

Lyle laughed. “ Mrs. O’Neil said it was the most 
purely feminine room she had ever seen ; that it was 
full of sentiment, and would certainly foster the ideal 
in your nature.” 

“It is purely lovable, if that expresses its object.” 

“ It does indeed,” said Lyle gravely. “ I wanted it 
to say something of myself and you — of all the pleasure 
it had given me to arrange it. I hope you will have 
many happy hours and days here, Nora ; at least. I’ll 
try my best that you shall have them.” 


133 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ You are too good to me, Lyle, dearest. What 
should I have done through all this terrible time but 
for you ?” 

“ Hush ! We are to have no tears, no sad memories. 
You’re ready — isn’t she, Jane ? ” 

“Yes, miss. No — one moment.” 

And Jane stepped back and gravely surveyed the ef- 
fects of her handiwork. On the toilet-table stood a 
bowl of white and pink roses. She took a white one, 
with its glossy green leaves, and fastened it deftly on 
the left side of the opeu bodice. Then she approached 
Lyle, with a pink one, and did the same. 

The girls stood side by side, and looked at themselves. 
Golden head and chestnut, violet eye and blue, pale 
cheek and glowing, a fair pair they made. The eyes of 
the woman who watched them grew dark witli regret- 
ful memories as she looked from face to face. Perhaps 
she, too, remembered life’s springtime, and its brief 
spell of hope and love and all that is joyous. 

The sound of the dinner bell recalled them to realities, 
and they hastened down-stairs. To Lyle’s surprise she 
saw her father talking eagerly to Jasper Standish. 

“ Nonsense! You must stay,” he was saying. 
“ Christmas Eve and all. Lyle, make Mr. Standish 
change his mind. He brought over these lovely flowers 
for you as a Christmas greeting, and now wants to run 
off.” 

Lyle’s face changed from warmth to coldness. Jas- 
per noticed it. 

“ I hope you will stay, Mr. Standish,” she said, not 
too cordially. “ And it was very kind of you to bring 
these flowers.” 


134 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

She did not touch them, he observed. There they 
lay on one of the smaller tables — a white fragile mass 
of Christmas roses, white lilac, and lilies of the valley. 
She knew he must have ordered them from Dublin. 
No such blossoms would have been found at any or- 
dinary florist’s, and the conservatories of the county 
were not too well stocked. 

“ You are very kind,” said Jasper, “and it is too 
tempting an offer to refuse, if you will add to your 
kindness by excusing my dress.” 

“ Of course, of course,” said Sir Anthony genially. 
“ Off with your overcoat and come along.” 

Nora Callaghan’s face had flushed and paled during 
that brief colloquy. He shook hands with her now, 
and murmured a conventional Christmas greeting. Dr. 
Dan offered his arm to Lyle, and Jasper Standish fol- 
lowed with Nora. 

It was an ordeal he would have gladly foregone. 
His eyes avoided hers, his hand shook nervously as he 
raised his soup spoon. Fortunately the party was so 
small that conversation could scarcely be anything but 
general. 

Lyle studiously avoided his gaze and ignored his 
compliments. She talked chiefly to Dr. Dan, leaving 
her father to entertain Jasper and Nora. The unex- 
pected appearance of this man whom she so disliked 
spoilt her anticipated evening. He would stay on, 
there would be cards, her father would ask her to make 
a fourth at whist, and she would have to endure that 
odious presence during the rubber. 

Dr. Dan’s funny stories fell on absent ears. Pigs 
and courtships and penances had lost their interest — 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 135 

temporarily. She was inexperienced as yet in that 
polite hypocrisy which feigns interest when bored or 
troubled, or racked with personal anxiety. Her laugh 
came in at the wrong place, and her brain followed but 
slowly the windings of an Irish argument, or the 
geography of an Irish oath. 

She noted, however, that Jasper Standish took a 
great deal more champagne than either of his elders, 
that his cheeks were very flushed, and his eyes strangely 
bright. She was thankful when she could give Nora 
the signal to retire. 

They went back to the hall, as the drawing-room 
was not yet ready for occupation. “ We shall follow 
you soon,” called out Sir Anthony. “ Lyle, see the 
card-table is ready. It’s a long time since I had a rubber.” 

“ I thought that would be the end of it ! ” said Lyle, 
somewhat crossly. “ I shall have to take a hand. 
And you — what will you do, darling ? ” 

“ If you don’t care about playing, Lyle, I will be 
the fourth,” Nora answered. “ I am more used to 
cards than you, and play a very good game — so dear 
old dad used to say.” 

Lyle looked at her with some wonder. Then her 
heart sank. “It’s only because of that hateful man,” 
she thought. “ Oh ! what can she see in him to care 
about? The very sight of him chills my blood. I 
feel he is treacherous — merciless — unsafe. If only I 
could make her believe it also ! ” 

She little guessed how or in what manner she would 
make her believe it — still less on what strange current 
they were even now being swept along to the shores of 
a terrible and fateful discovery. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


“ May I come in ? ” asked Lyle’s voice very softly at 
the communicating door between the two bedrooms. 

Nora started from a reverie, long, thoughtful, pain- 
filled. She was partly undressed, and had thrown on 
a white woolen gown of Lyle’s providing. The big 
cushioned couch was drawn up before the fire. There 
was no other light in the room save that of the glowing 
flames. 

Yes,” she answered. “ I am not in bed.” 

The door opened. Lyle stood for a moment on the 
threshold and gazed around. 

“ It is just as I pictured,” she said. “ If you are not 
sleepy, Nora, may I stop with you till the Christmas 
dawn ? It is just eleven o’clock.” 

“I hoped you would!” said Nora earnestly. “ I 
did not like to ask it. You seemed tired.” 

“ I am not tired,” Lyle said, and closed the door, and 
then came forward and sank down on the rug beside 
the couch. “ You lie back,” she said, “and make 
yourself comfortable. I have something to tell you. 
It will surprise you, I think.” 

Nora looked at her. The firelight played on the 
curve of exquisite lips parting in a smile of exquisite 
happiness. 

136 


i37 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ You needn’t tell more than your face does, 
Lyle,” she said. “ He has returned, and you are 
happy.” 

“Oh! so happy,” breathed the girl passionately. 
“ There seems no word, no language to express it.” 

Nora’s heart gave a little throb of envy. It was not 
possible to look at that radiant face, that expression of 
perfect human happiness, and not envy it. For her own 
heart was heavy, and this evening it had been racked 
with doubt and distrust. 

“ I hardly know how to tell you,” faltered Lyle. 
“ I never said anything to you all this time, but I 
thought he had gone away, not caring. I feared he 
would never return ; and all the time, Nora, he — loved 
me ! ” 

If Derrick Mallory could have heard the intonation 
of those two words, he might well have sunk on his 
knees in humble thankfulness ; not to many is it given 
to receive such wealth of worship and self-surrender as 
this girl’s nature could so royally bestow. 

“I always thought so,” said Nora. “It was easy 
to read. I knew he could explain his absence. What 
occasioned it ? ” 

Lyle gave a little start. Then she laughed softly. 

“ I really never asked him. It all came so suddenly. 
I was walking in the woods and reached the boundary 
of the park, and he was coming from the other direction 
and saw me, and then — well, then he told me, Nora.” 

“ Darling, I am glad for you. I hope you will be 
very, very happy.” 

“Iam almost afraid. It seems too good to be true.” 

“Nothing is too good to be true for you, Lyle. 


138 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

Certainly no man. I think it is the other way about. 
You are too good for him.” 

“ Oh, Nora ! ” Reproach rang out at such seeming 
disloyalty. “ That is only because you don't know 
him.” 

“ Do you know so very much more ? ” 

“ Ah ! but it's so different when one feels. Don't 
you think, Nora, love is a sort of intuition ? ” 

“ They say it is a sort of mental and moral blind- 
ness.” 

“ That's not kind : not a bit like you, Nora. Oh ! I 
thought you would be so glad, so full of sympathy. If 
it were you ■" 

She paused, conscious of a sudden check. Well 
enough she knew that if it had been Nora's fate to con- 
fide an acknowledged love of which Jasper Standish 
was hero, she could not have feigned much sympathy 
with her. 

“Ah !” said Nora sadly, “if it were 1 — but it never 
will be. Yon say love is a sort of intuition. So is 
sorrow. I know my fate, dear. It won't be a happy one. 
But don't let us talk of myself. I want to hear about 
Derrick. I suppose I may call him that ? '' 

Lyle's eyes turned to the fire again. Her hands 
clasped themselves around her knee. 

“ Of course you may.” 

Then followed a stream of soft raptures, conjectures, 
hopes. But at last the shadow fell, and Nora saw it. 
With little difficulty she drew from the halting lips 
that dreadful possibility — her father's objection, 
grounded at first on prejudice, then on the difference 
of religion between the two. What did Nora think ? 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 139 

Nora thought the latter difficulty the greatest. She 
had lived in Ireland long enough, and had heard 
enough, too, to give Lyle some idea of how Irish Prot- 
estants are hated by priests and people. 

“ But your father ” began Lyle unthinkingly. 

Nora winced. “ Dear old dad would have got on 
much better but for his religion. That’s why he 
never got a really good appointment. But he couldn’t 
help being popular wherever he went. Still, you see, 

he must have had a bitter enemy ” Her voice 

faltered. Again they had stumbled on dangerous 
ground. 

There was a spell of silence. Presently Lyle spoke 
again. 

“ If my father refuses to let me marry Derrick, I 
cannot go against his wishes, but I cannot help loving 
him. I shall never marry any one else.” 

“ That is how you feel ? ” 

“ Yes. Isn’t it strange that a man can come into 
one’s life and alter it all so completely in such a short 
time, Nora ? For it is a very short time. You remem- 
ber that morning when we rode here and discussed love, 
and what it might mean, and wondered ? And now it 
has happened.” 

“ Yes,” said Nora, and her voice faltered a little. 
“It has happened — for you.” 

“Ah ! dearest,” said Lyle, with quick sympathy. 
“ forgive me if I seem to forget your suffering. My 
own happiness seems so selfish — and yet I have no one 
else to speak to.” 

“Iam glad you told me, Lyle, but I foresee trouble 
ahead of all this. Derrick will have to fight the up- 


140 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

holders of his faith — and you your father’s prejudices 
on two points. Then he has to go back to India soon, 
hasn’t he ? ” 

“ Yes, in two months, I think.” 

“ I’m afraid, Lyle, your cloud, though not bigger 
than a man’s hand now, is on the horizon already. 
But I don’t want to discourage you. We must hope 
for the best. Sir Anthony is so fond of you, he 
couldn’t see you unhappy.” 

Lyle’s face was very grave. Her lips quivered. 

“ It seems hard,” she said, “ that the moment one 
touches joy it vanishes, and sorrow looks at one in- 
stead. Isn’t it so, Nora ? ” 

“ I am only a girl, and very ignorant, and have seen 
but little of life. But even that little tells me it is so, 
Lyle.” 

“ It is very .hard, and very pathetic,” 

“Even when one hasn’t quite realized it. Men suf- 
fer, women suffer, little children suffer. With one 
hand we clasp joy, with the other grief. They are 
twin sisters that cannot be separated. The legend of 
my country is ‘ the smile and the tear,’ you know.” 

“ True : and I cannot wonder that you are less hope- 
ful than of old. Still, Nora, not all the shadows, not 
all the fears, can blot out the memory of to-day. In 
all my life it will stand out, pure, perfect, wonderful. 
However it ends, I shall be grateful for having known 
the truth and worth of love.” 

Nora sat perfectly still. 

She had determined she would not give way to emo- 
tions. This ache and throb of her own heart should 
not draw confession of its weakness. But the task 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 141 

grew harder every moment. Those last words, in their 
tender confidence, their heaven-lifted folly, their revela- 
tion of life’s supreme glory, almost broke down her 
self-restraint. 

Beside this love what was hers ? Shamed, distrust- 
ful, pain-racked — a strain of broken music beside a 
poem of soulful joy. And yet she loved as deeply, as 
passionately, as the girl by her side. 

But her life was a dream half-broken, restless — a 
sleep with closed eyes that feared to open. To have 
said “ I love where I am not beloved ” would have 
seemed a shameful confession ; yet the shame would 
have been easier to bear than this self-repression, this 
damming back of a flood that longed to roll its tide- 
ful waters over prudence, hopelessness, restraint, de- 
nial, fate ! 

Why, she asked herself, should love come in guise of 
devil to some, of angel to others ? Why should Hagar 
of the Desert have nothing, save the sex that claimed 
them, in common with Sarah of the Tent ? The wild 
rebellion of youth ran riot in her veins. Her friend’s 
exultant happiness showed her own misery in blacker 
contrast. The one walked in a garden of fragrant 
glories, the other in a meadow land of blight. For one 
flowers bloomed, wings unfolded, sunlight showered its 
golden dower ; for the other were gathering cloud, and 
withered bloom, and gloom of starless night. 

“ I have tired you,” said Lyle at last. She looked 
up at the pale face lying against rose-colored cushions : 
the haunting sadness of the eyes struck her to the 
heart. She knelt down beside the quiet figure, and put 
her arms about it. 


142 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ Darling,” she said, “ are you suffering from what 
is harder to bear than grief for your recent loss ? 
Won’t you trust me ? Is it easier to bear, locked up 
in your own heart ?” 

Nora pushed her aside suddenly. Some wild thought 
of escape — of denial — flashed through her brain. A 
light from the wood fire flamed up full upon her face 
— showed its pain, its dread, its awful suffering. 

Lyle was horror-struck. “ Nora ! ” she cried. 

Then the storm burst. “Why did you say that ? 
Why did you ? Oh ! Lyle, I’m so unhappy ! Don’t 
mind, let me cry. I’m tired out, I think ; and to-night 
— to-night ” 

“ What of to-night ? Dear, don’t fear to tell me. 
Never sister loved sister more devotedly. Surely you 
know that.” 

“ It’s because I know it,” sobbed the distracted girl. 
“ Because you yourself are unconscious of what you 
have done. You — have taken him from me, Lyle. It 
is you he loves — you. I saw it to-night if I never saw 
it before.” 

Lyle rose slowly to her feet, pale, and stern, and 
grave. 

“ What are you saying, Nora ? I — have done 
this ? ” 

Two slender hands covered the tortured face. The 
tears streamed down and through that useless pro- 
tection. 

“ It is true ! ” she panted, between her gasping sobs. 
“ Oh ! why did you make me say it ? The shame is 
hard enough to bear without that. If it had been any 
one else but you, Lyle ! You don’t even like him — 


143 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

you never did — you don’t want his love, and I — I could 
go down on my knees and pray for it. I could die 
gladly only to have had his arms round me — once.” 

“ Nora ! Oh, my dear, stop ! You are over- 
wrought. You don’t know what you’re saying ! ” 

“ I do know. I have kept it back so long that I feel 
as if I should go mad with silence. You can’t under- 
stand. You are colder — more self-controlled ; but 
when we Irish love, it is desperate. It is life or death 
— heaven or hell ! ” 

“ My dear ” 

“ You pity me, of course. It’s no fault of yours, as 
I S aid ” 

She sank back exhausted, the sobs coming still in 
hysterical gasps, her whole slight frame exhausted with 
emotion. 

Lyle looked at her with a sort of terror in her eyes. In 
contrast with her own love, her own feelings, this tor- 
rent of ungoverned and irrepressible passion seemed 
awful. 

There was nothing to say. She hated this man, and 
— Nora loved him. He had led her on to believe he 
cared for her, and now chose suddenly to transfer his 
allegiance. That alone proclaimed him untrustworthy, 
and yet — Nora loved him ! 

She sank down on the white rug. Those agonizing 
sobs rent her very soul. 

Then from afar, in the distance, came the sound of 
bells. Softly, sweetly, they chimed in the stirless 
silence of the night. Nora’s hands dropped from her 
face. She looked at Lyle. 

“ The Christmas dawn ! ” she whispered. “ What 


144 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

a greeting to give it, Lyle ! I have always met it with 
a prayer. To-night — I cannot.” 

Her head sank back against the rose-silk cushions. 
She lay there quite still, with closed eyes, while the 
bells pealed “Peace and Goodwill towards Men ! ” 


CHAPTER XVII. 


For long after she had seen Nora safe in bed, and 
asleep from sheer exhaustion, Lyle lay awake herself 
in the adjoining room. 

The tragedies of life were facing her rapidly. Only 
a few months, and the glad, hopeful serenity had 
vanished. She had faced crime, sorrow, loss, love and 
now stood as a rival in the eyes of the friend she loved 
so dearly. It was a bitter truth. But she had heard 
it spoken, and would have to bear its bitterness for all 
the time to come. 

It was long past midnight. Dismal sobs of wind and 
rain were in the air, the clock’s ticking seemed ab- 
normally loud. It would be morning soon. She would 
have to rise and face it, carrying a double secret in 
her heart. 

Derrick would not disturb the Christmas serenity by 
any interview with Sir Anthony. They had agreed to 
wait for this week, and then the matter was to be laid 
before him. Knowing what they would have to face, 
Derrick had begged for one week of peace — one week 
in which to hold their secret undisturbed — seven little 
days in which to talk and dream and meet. It did not 
seem much. Fate could hardly grudge them that. 

Lyle covered her aching eyes with her hands and 
tried to pray, but the words brought little sense of com- 
io i45 


146 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

fort. What a tangle it all seemed ! Derrick and her- 
self, and Nora and that hateful man. She shuddered 
as she thought of the girl’s reckless passion, of her 
words : “ When we Irish love it is desperate ! It is 
life or death — heaven or hell ! ” 

What could there be of heaven, its glory, its peace, 
its sanctity, in this love of hers for Jasper Standish ? 
Even if it were returned, she dreaded to think of 
Nora’s future in his hands, of her faithful, passionate 
heart at his mercy. 

The prejudice she had conceived against Jasper 
Standish was one of those inexplicable feelings that 
defy reason. She had distrusted and disliked him 
from the first. His good looks were only a mask. 
She felt that cruelty and treachery lurked behind. 
His covert attentions to herself at once incensed and 
shamed her. Yet they were so artfully conveyed that 
it was almost impossible to take any definite stand. 
She could only avoid, she could not absolutely forbid 
them. 

Worn out at last with conflicting thoughts, she fell 
asleep. So deep and dreamless was it, that the pretty 
Irish housemaid who brought her morning tea and 
prepared her bath stood long by her side, not liking to 
wake her. 

The rain was over. A brisk wind had driven the 
clouds away. The sun shone through her window 
as she opened her eyes at last. She sprang up and 
looked around. A vague sense of something distress- 
ful oppressed her, and yet a new and wonderful joy 
lived in the sunshine, echoed through call and chirp of 
birds in the ivy round her casements. Then she 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 147 

remembered, and pretty Molly wondered at the sodden 
gravity of the beautiful young face. 

“ Wishin’ you a Merry Christmas, miss,” she said 
shyly. “ And many of them ; and long may ye be 
spared to live and enjoy them in your beautiful home.” 

“ Thank you, Molly,” she said. “ It is very pleasant 
to hear good wishes the moment one wakes. The 
same to yourself.” 

“ Ah ! thin, miss, me best thanks, an* may it be long 
before I say good-by to ye. Shall I be callin’ Miss 
Callaghan at all ? It’s in the deep sleep she is ; so I 
took the tea back agin. ” 

“ Oh, don’t disturb her ! ” cried Lyle. “ Sleep will 
do her good. You can take her some breakfast when 
she wakes up. Is my bath ready ? ” 

“ It is, miss.” 

“ Very well. You can go now, Molly. Any letters ? ” 

“ Sure, the post is late on Christmas Day, miss. 
What wid the weight av cards an’ packages, Shane 
O’Flaherty the poor boy, can’t be kapin’ his hours 
reg’lar at all.” 

Lyle laughed, and sprang out of bed. The gloom 
and sorrow of the past night had lessened. She was 
young ; she loved ; she was beloved. Fate could not 
harm her seriously, could not rob her of the joy of 
memory, the sweets of anticipation. Troubles would 
end somehow. They must. If one set oneself reso- 
lutely to achieve a thing, one was bound to accomplish 
it. 

The black nightmare of those past hours fled before 
the glorious sunshine, the hopes and joys of the season. 
Her soul was at peace with all the world, brimming 


148 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

over with tenderness and good-will. Nature rejoices 
after storm and stress, so in like manner human hearts 
rise from sorrow’s pressure, and breathe and live once 
more in the sunshine of hope — the hope that is God’s 
message, that even from the closing gates of Eden 
breathed its message to forlorn ears, that keeps alive 
some instinct of courage in bruised and breaking hearts, 
so that mortals shall not quite despair even when life 
seems most desolate. 

Nora was still asleep when Lyle had finished dressing. 
She softly closed the door again, and went down-stairs 
to breakfast. 

Sir Anthony’s mild face was full of kindliness and 
good-will. As he held her in his arms, and bade God 
bless her as the treasure of his life, her conscience 
knew a little pang of remorse. 

It was hard to hold a secret from him. It was the 
first time she had ever done so. “But it won’t be for 
long,” she told herself. “ Only one little week.” Yet 
could she have foreseen the disasters that that “ little 
week ” of secrecy would entail, she would have thrown 
herself on that kindly breast, and confessed there and 
then her girlish love. 

But the moments of opportunity are rare, and few 
hands are ready to grasp them. 

She withdrew herself from her father’s arm, and 
took her accustomed seat at the breakfast table, 
explaining Nora’s absence while she poured out 
coffee. 

“Are you coming to church with us, dad?” she 
asked presently. 

“ Certainly. The congregation is none too large at 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 149 

any time ; and poor Mr. Harrison will look for us. I 
thought of asking him back to lunch.” 

“ You’ll have to ask his wife also ; and she is a 
dreadfully uninteresting person.” 

“ I never knew a clergyman’s wife who wasn’t. Their 
ideas have a purely personal horizon, bounded on the 
north by their own special church, on the south by 
mothers’ meetings, on the east by their own official im- 
portance, and on the west by the inevitable large family 
which is a clerical stipend.” 

Lyle laughed. She felt almost light-hearted If only 
she could forget that confession of Nora’s. 

Sir Anthony seemed in unusually good spirits. He 
talked more than was usual with him, After break- 
fast was over he produced two morocco cases, one of 
which he presented to Lyle. She gave a little cry of 
rapture. ‘ ‘ Pearls ! Oh ! how lovely ! ” 

Reposing on a velvet bed was a necklace of pearls 
clasped by a single diamond. Just the ornament for 
a girlish throat, with that pure-tinted, satin skin that 
Lyle possessed. 

“ And this is for Nora,” said the old gentleman. 
He showed a similar necklet, only the pearls were 
smaller. “ I know you like to have everything as alike 
as possible,” he said. “ Besides, pearls are the jewels 
of girlhood. I never care to see you wear anything 
else.” 

f< How dear of you to think of Nora too ! I’m sure 
she’ll be in raptures with this.” 

“ It will be a sad day for her, poor child,” said Sir 
Anthony sadly. “ She cannot choose but remember her 
last Christmas Day.” 


ISO The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ It seems the strangest thing to me,” exclaimed 
Lyle with sudden impetuosity, “ that nothing has been 
found out about that murder. I often think that Mr. 
Standish doesn’t trouble his head about it. Day follows 
day, and week follows week, and neither clue nor trace 
is found.” 

“ Standish has a clue, but he is too wary to give it 
away yet,” said her father. “ He knows what gossips 
these folk are. The matter has to be conducted with 
secrecy and discretion.” 

“ Oh, of course, you always take his part,” said Lyle 
somewhat pettishly. “ I cannot understand why you 
like that man so much.” 

“I find him excellent company. And he has been 
most thoughtful and kind in many ways. You have 
an unaccountable prejudice against him, Lyle.” 

“ Well, we won’t begin our first Christmas here with 
a quarrel,” said Lyle lightly. “ As I cannot agree with 
you on this point, we won’t discuss it. I’m going to 
run up to see Nora. Shall I take the present, or will 
you give it her yourself ? ” 

“You take it. Girls understand each other. I 
can’t bear to see her cry.” 

And cry Nora did at the thoughtful kindness and 
beauty of her present, recalling as it did another loving 
giver, who was laid at rest forever now in the cold 
earth. Last year he had given her pearls, too — a ring 
of them, the first ring she had ever worn. “ They 
mean tears,” Mrs. O’Neil had said, when the girl dis- 
played it triumphantly. 

Well, they had certainly meant tears for her — bitter, 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 15 1 

humiliating, heart-breaking tears. Would these mean 
the same 0 

***** 

Lyle did not allude to the conversation of the pre- 
vious night. She felt it best to treat it with the re- 
spect of silence. It had been an impulse fierce and un- 
governable. Perhaps Nora regretted that self-betrayal 
as much as she regretted its nature. 

The morning sped on. The boredom of the clerical 
luncheon was over, and Mr. Harrison and his wife had 
taken their departure. Sir Anthony retired to his 
study ; Lyle, blushing softly, took a letter from her 
breast, where it had lain since the post arrived — her first 
love-letter 

Who would not covet girlhood and its faith to be 
heaven-lifted by such sweet folly ! 

“ Darling — My Own, 

“ If it was no dream — and faith, child, Fve been ask- 
ing myself that question ever since — meet me as soon 
after three as you can at the same place. 'Twill be a 
hundred years till I see your sweet face again, beloved, 

and hear you say Never mind. I’ll ask you that 

when we meet. 

“ Yours only and always, 

“ Derrick.” 

Of course she would go. She must tell Nora, but she 
would understand. A week — and one day had gone — 
only six remained. 


152 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

She turned to where her friend was sitting, gazing 
moodily into the fire. 

st Nora,” she said, “ I have to go out for an hour or 
two. Can you amuse yourself ? You won’t think me 
rude, leaving you alone ? ” 

“ Of course not. I think I will lie down. I’m very 
tired.” 

“ There are plenty of books in my room. Take any 
you like ; or there are all the Christmas numbers on 
that table beside you.” 

“ Don’t trouble about me.” 

She rose languidly. Try as she would she could not 
stifle the pang of envy, could not but feel that Fate 
was dealing cruelly with her. 

From the window of her room she saw Lyle speed- 
ing like a lapwing over grassy lawn, and graveled path. 
Soon the trees hid her from those sad and brooding 
eyes. She turned away and threw herself down on the 
couch. 

“ She has everything,” she thought resentfully. 
“ Home, wealth, joy, love. And I — I am bankrupt in 
all. Oh ! it isn’t fair, it isn’t right. If I didn’t love 
her, I should hate her for robbing me of the only thing 
I craved on earth.” And then she felt a sudden horror 
of herself for a thought so unworthy. 

“ It’s the most miserable Christmas Day I ever spent 
in my life, and she doesn’t care. All the world now 
only means — him. Oh ! what is coming to me ? 1 

feel so wicked, so envious. I seem changing altogether ! 
My mind is a fever, my heart only one ceaseless ache. 
I seem to lose all control over brain and sense at times. 
Oh ! what an awful thing it is to love like this ! I 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 153 

could kill myself with shame and rage — only I feel that 
even death would not stamp it out.” 

She flung her arms out in wild agony. “If God 
puts love into our hearts, what can we do ! I didn’t 
ask it, I didn’t want it ; but there’s no power left in 
me to cast it out again. There it is — beating, craving, 
maddening. Whatever he is, whatever he does, I love 
him — shall always love him. Oh ! Jasper, why can’t 
you care for me ? ” 

The tears only scorched her eyes — they brought no 
relief to her aching brain. She followed Lyle in 
fancy ; saw the meeting, blushing face, happy eyes, 
the shy grace which yielded to a lover’s embrace. And 
one — once all this had seemed so near herself. Love 
had looked out of those dark eyes of Jasper Standish, 
had echoed in the subtle falter of tones love-tuned and 
beguiling, had given meaning to a hand touch, a warm 
embrace that held her to his heart for the magic mo- 
ments of a too brief waltz. 

These memories maddened her. Since Lyle had 
come here all was changed. She had been pushed 
aside ; her beauty, her grace, her worshiping tender- 
ness were of no account. 

Where had she heard or read something about a 
woman driven desperate by unrequited love ? Driven to 
Death’s arms from those coldly indiflerent ones of her 
lover ! 

“Hell has no fury like a woman scorned.” Ho 
fury ! Good God above ! Was she to be that! All 
the sweetness of her nature turned to gall, its summer 
prime blighted and laid waste ! 

She hid her face in her hands. She rocked herself 


1 54 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

to and fro in an agony of fear. “ Oh ! help me, Christ/’ 
she moaned. “ I don’t want to do wrong. Don’t let 
me get hard and bitter and revengeful. If I could be 
happy just a little while — only a little while — before I 
die ! ” 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


There was a false air of festivity about that Christ- 
mas night. Sir Anthony was grave and absent-minded. 
To the old, Christmas is always a time of memories. 
Nora was pale and weary-looking. Lyle, in her new 
radiance of happiness, felt almost ashamed of a joy 
that was apart from them, and tried to subdue her 
sweet content and hopefulness in sympathy with regrets 
of the one, the sorrow of the other. 

After dinner they sat round the wood fire in the hall, 
and talked. At least, Sir Anthony talked and the girls 
listened. But it was a relief to all when ten o’clock 
sounded, and they were free to part for the night. 

“ I am not going to keep you up chattering,” said 
Lyle, as she stood on the threshold of Nora’s room. 
“ You need rest ; and, indeed, I don’t mind telling you 
I had very little sleep last night. When you are 
stronger and better we will have another talk. At 
present it is bad for 3 r ou, and only selfish of me. 
Promise me you won’t sit up thinking. J ust go straight 
to bed and sleep. You’ll feel all the better to-morrow 
morning. ” 

“ I’ll do my best,” said Nora. “ I must confess I 
feel tired, awfully tired. Jane is coming up to do my 
hair and undress me,” she added. “ Shall I say good 
night now ? ” 


*55 


156 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

They kissed each other, but Lyle felt something was 
lacking in the caress. The old spontaneous tenderness 
had gone from it. “ Poor darling ! no wonder she is 
unhappy,” she thought regretfully. And then she 
closed the door and went into her own room. 

She had so much to think of. All the wonderful 
gladness of that afternoon — all the tender speeches of 
her lover, all the hopes of the golden future that was 
to be theirs. She blew out the candle at last, and 
then, actuated by some impulse to gaze at the same 
sky, the same moon, on which his eyes might then be 
gazing, she crossed over to the window and drew aside 
the blind and looked out. The moon was almost at its 
full. It shone on leafless trees, on glistening grass ; 
the shadowy path which yesterday had led to such un- 
dreamt-of happiness. 

As she stood looking out, she saw a figure cross the 
level patch of sward and flit under the trees to that 
same avenue. 

It was a woman’s figure. 

Lyle felt that discipline was being relaxed in some 
way. The servants were all supposed to be in bed by 
half-past ten at the latest. Certainly, even if upon 
this occasion owing to Christmas festivities, they had 
no right to be out of doors. 

“ I wonder who it was ? ” she thought. “ Not 
Molly — she is short ; the figure was tall. I must tell 
Jane about it. Dear me ! I hope there won’t be trouble 
in the servants’ hall, with this half-English, half-Irish 
establishment. I wonder why none of them like Jane. 
Perhaps she is too strict. However, this sort of thing 
will never do. ; ’ 


i57 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

She dropped the blind. The figure was out of sight. 
There was a sweetheart in the case, no doubt. Her 
heart gave a little throb. It must be hard not to be 
able to see your lover when you wish. No wonder 
maid and man took the law into their own hands 
occasionally. Still, she must give Jane a hint in the 
morning. 

* * * # * 

A dismal, wet morning followed that genial Christ- 
mas Day. The steady downpour gave no hope of 
cessation. Lyle felt correspondingly depressed. She 
would not be able to get out. One day of the prom- 
ised seven would be lost. How hard it seemed ! 

Nora came down to breakfast. She looked wan and 
wretched. She had not slept, she said. 

“ I tell you what we’ll do,” said Lyle suddenly ; “ we 
will set to work on my turret-room. I’ll have a fire 
lit at once, and Jane shall help us. At least, you 
needn’t work. You can sit down and watch me.” 

Nora brightened up at the suggestion, but declared 
she was not going to sit down. She was perfectly able 
to work, and would like it. 

‘‘Well, I’ll just go to the honsekeeper’s room and 
give my orders, and then we can begin.” 

It was only when given those orders that the mem- 
ory of the preceding night occurred to Lyle. 

“Oh ! by the way, Jane,” she said, “I saw one of 
the servants going across the park last night. It was 
nearly eleven o’clock. Surely ” 

She stopped abruptly, startled by a sudden look of 
alarm on Jane GrapnelTs face. It was gone in a mo- 
ment, but certainly it had been there. Yet why should 


158 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

she be alarmed ? It was no fault of hers. “ Perhaps,” 
she said, “ you know who it was ? ” 

“ I — yes, miss, I think I do.” 

“ Well, you must see it does not occur again. IPs 
not safe, as well as not right. If the girl goes out, she 
must leave some door open. I thought you or Wood- 
man went over the house the last thing. Who went 
over it last night ? ” 

“ I — was the last, miss.” 

“ Didn’t you notice anything ? ” 

“No, miss.” 

Lyle thought her manner rather strange, but let the 
matter drop, and made her request about the turret- 
room. Jane promised to come as soon as her morning 
duties were over, and Lyle ran off, all eagerness and 
excitement, to the scene of her forthcoming labors. 

A housemaid, was kneeling by the fire, which did not 
seem inclined to burn. It was no other than Honora 
Mooney, who had secured the place after all. 

Lyle stood a moment looking at the confusion. 
Furniture was there but none of it in its proper place ; 
books stood in piles on the floor, as they had been 
taken out of packing cases, pictures were carefully 
stacked on tables and window seats, but none as yet 
graced the walls. The room looked gloomy and un- 
inviting in its disorder, and the rain beat heavily at 
the quaint leaded casements. The view without was 
blurred and misty, and Lyle gave a little shiver as her 
eyes turned to the smoldering flame. 

“ It’s damp the place is, miss,” said the girl apolo- 
getically. “ I’ve been on my two knees this blessed 
hour, tryin* to light the fire.” 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 159 

“ I think it’s going to burn up now,” said Lyle, with 
forced cheerfulness. “ By the bye, what’s your 
name ? I haven’t seen you before. You’re the under- 
housemaid, I think ? ” 

“I am, miss. An’ it’s doin’ my best I’ll be to suit 
yer ladyship. Honora Mooney’s me name. Me mother 
has a bit av a shop in the town beyant. Molly an’ I is 
friends from schooltime, an’ she spoke up to the house- 
keeper for me, an’ I came in the night before the Christ- 
mas Eve.” 

“ Then who was it, Molly or you, who ran out last 
night across the park ; I suppose to meet a young 
man ? ” 

The girl looked astonished. “ Indade, thin, it wasn’t 
me, miss. That’s not the sort av thing I’d be doin’ any 
day. Besides, it’s Phelim McGee, the dacint boy 
that’s gardener here to his honor, that I’m kapin’ 
company with, an’ no call to be runnin’ after him at 
sich hours, seein’ as how I’ve me own evenin’, and 
Sunday after Mass.” 

“ Perhaps it was Molly,” suggested Lyle, thinking 
what a lot Irish servants had to say beyond plain “ Yes 
or No.” 

“Indade, thin, axin’ yer ladyship’s pardon, it could 
not have been Molly, for she an’ I are sharin’ the same 
room, an’ we was both in bed an’ drainin’ — lastewise 
she was snorin’ — by half-past ten o’clock last night, 
seein’ as we was up at daylight for first Mass before 
doin’ a stroke av work.” 

Lyle felt a little puzzled. The cook was the only 
other possible delinquent. But the cook was a staid 
and portly person of forty years of age at least. Be- 


160 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

sides, she hadn’t been long enough over from England 
to have a “ follower” yet, even were she minded that 
way. Also the figure she had seen did not in any way 
resemble Bates. It had been tall, slight, and active. 
She remembered the quick step — the rapid passage over 
the open space into the shadow of the trees. Certainly 
it was very odd. She wondered if the girl was speak- 
ing truth. She had heard that Irish servants con- 
sidered that in no way a binding obligation if they took 
service with a Protestant family. The priest would 
always absolve them in the matter of a “ little bit of a 
lie ” to a heretic. 

There seemed a mystery about this simple fact, and 
she did not like it. Some one had certainly left 
the kitchen regions and been in the park between half- 
past ten and eleven o’clock the previous night. 
Should she let the matter drop or pursue it further ? 

“ Will yer ladyship be needin’ me any more ? ” in- 
quired Honora, giving a last touch to the blazing logs. 
“ The housekeeper said I was to bring dusters an’ a 
sweepin’ brush, an’ there they are. ” 

“No, thank you,” said Lyle. “I shall not need 
you. Mrs. Grapnell will help me.” 

The girl curtsied and withdrew. At the same mo- 
ment Nora entered. She looked more cheerful, and 
like her old self. She had tied a big holland apron 
over her black froek, and was evidently bent on work. 
Lyle banished the subject of the truant in the park for 
the time, and the two girls commenced their labors. 
It was about half an hour before Jane joined them, and 
the three did wonders with the room before the lunch- 
eon bell rang. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 161 

“If we go on with it this afternoon,” said Lyle, 
after a hopeless glance at the still pouring rain, “it 
will be finished by evening. We will have afternoon 
tea up here, Nora, to celebrate the occasion. Jane, 
you must be tired. You've done all the hard work.” 

“Isn't it quiet up here !” said Nora. “A perfect 
Sister Anne's turret.” 

She went to the casement and opened it. “ You 
can see for miles and miles. It's lovely ! Why” — 
she drew back suddenly, the paleness of her face 
suffused with a blush. “ Lyle, there’s a visitor ; some 
one riding up the drive.” 

“Not Mr. Standish again!” exclaimed Lyle, with 
impetuous wrath. 

Nora made no answer, only left the room. 

Jane’s eyes met those of her young mistress. 

“You don’t like him either, miss ?” she said in a 
low voice. 

“Indeed I don't, Jane. I wish he wouldn't come 
here so often.” 

“ Oh ! Miss Lyle, if you only knew — if you could 
make Miss Nora believe ” 

“ Believe what, Jane ?” 

The woman wrung her hands in a sort of impotent 
despair. 

“ Believe that he is a villain, a liar, and — worse. ” 

“ Worse ! What do you mean ? ” 

“ It will come out some day ; it’s bound to come 
out ; but he's so cunning and so strong, and proofs 
are difficult. But oh, Miss Lyle, if yon could only 
keep her away from his evil influence till the time is 
ripe, till the truth can be spoken ! ” 

XI 


162 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“I — I can’t imagine what you mean, Jane. You 
must explain. But I can’t wait now ; I shall be late 
as it is. This afternoon you must tell me your reasons 
for speaking against Mr. Standish in this manner.” 

She threw oif her apron, and ran down-stairs to wash 
her hands before going to the dining-room. 

“ So I’m not the only one who distrusts you, Mr. 
Jasper,” she said to herself. “ Oh ! if only it wasn’t 
too late to save my darling from your evil influence — 
if only she hadn’t learnt to care ! ” 

***** 

Jasper Standish was telling Sir Anthony that he had 
called on an important matter. That easy-going gen- 
tleman was a little disconcerted. 

“ Leave it until after luncheon,” he said. “ What a 
day for you to be out ! ” 

“ Oh, I never mind weather,” said the Inspector. 
“ It wouldn’t do.” 

A few minutes later Nora entered. She explained 
that Lyle would be down presently. She had been 
arranging her new room. They sat down to table. 
It was an informal meal, and nr one waited for any 
one else if inclined to begin. The soup was finished 
and removed before Lyle appeared. She excused her 
unpunctuality, and with a very frigid handshake to 
Jasper took a seat opposite to him. 

“ How does the sanctum go on ? ” inquired her 
father. “ I must tell you, Mr. Standish, that my 
daughter has chosen a very queer-looking room in 
the turret for herself. It is to be workshop, study, 
boudoir. A mysterious resort for feminine employ- 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 163 

ment and feminine confidences. I am not to look at it 
until it is complete. When will that be, Lyle ? ” 

“ By this evening.” 

“ You have worked hard,” said her father, in sur- 
prise. 

“ The room in the turret ? ” said Jasper eagerly. 
“ That is the room with the secret stairway. Have 
you discovered it ? ” 

Both girls looked at him in surprise. 

“No!” exclaimed Lyle. “ I never knew there was 
any other staircase but that leading from the upper 
corridor.” 

“ There is, though, and a queer history enough is 
attached to it. I’ve been down it myself when the 
house was untenanted. I’ll show it you if you wish, 
Miss Orcheton ? ” 

“ I hope it’s safe. Where does it lead to?” asked 
Sir Anthony. 

“ To an underground passage ; and that goes through 
the park till you reach a sort of cave — a rocky hollow, 
near the river. It is said that a very pious friar of the 
order of St. Francis used to dwell in it.” 

“ How strange ! ”c exclaimed Lyle, deeply interested. 
“ Oh ! you must show me the way. I can’t think 
where the staircase can be. The walls look so solid.” 

“Well,” said Sir Anthony, “when we’ve settled 
our business, Standish, you can play guide to the 
mystery. But he careful. Those old passages and 
stairways are sometimes unsafe.” 

“This stair is of stone,” said Jasper. 

“ How came you to discover it ? ” asked Lyle. 

He smiled — that cold, faint smile she so disliked. 


164 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ My business, Miss Orcheton, sometimes leads me 
into strange places and strange scenes. I had reason 
to suspect a criminal was in hiding here. In my search 
I came across that secret door. I persevered until I 
found out how it was opened.” 

“And did you find the miscreant?” inquired Sir 
Anthony. 

“ No ; he escaped.” 

“ Lyle looked up from her plate — looked him full in 
the face, and saw his eyes droop before her steadfast 
gaze. 

“You seem to have a way of letting suspected of- 
fenders escape, Mr. Standish,” she said. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


It was fated there should be no discovery of the 
secret staircase that afternoon. Whatever the nature 
of Jasper Standish’s communication to Sir Anthony, it 
was one that seemed to overthrow all other plans. He 
had been nearly an hour in the study when Nora’s keen 
ears caught the sound of horse’s hoofs on the gravel, 
and rushing to the window, she saw the retreating 
figure of her fickle lover. White as death, she turned 
to Lyle. 

“ He's gone ! ” she exclaimed. 

Lyle, busy with an effective bit of drapery and a 
carved Cairo screen, asked vaguely — “ Who ?” 

“ Jasper — Mr. Standish ! ” said Nora faintly. “ I 
thought he was coming here to show us the secret 
door.” 

“ He certainly said so. Perhaps he hadn’t time. 
Never mind, child, another day will do, unless we can 
find it for ourselves. What do you say, Jane ? Shall 
we try?” 

“ I think if one person has found it, another surely 
may,” answered Jane gravely. 

“ How it rains ! ” exclaimed Lyle disappointedly, go- 
ing to the window and looking out with love-lorn eyes 
at leaden sky and dripping trees. “ No sign of clear- 
ing up to-day.” 


1 66 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

She turned and looked at the room. Suddenly a 
cold, chilling wave seemed to flow over the pleasant 
glow and excitement that had actuated her labors 
hitherto. She remembered that feeling which she had 
spoken of to Nora when first she had stood in this 
room — the feeling that some great unhappiness, some 
great sorrow, would befall her there. Was it already 
on its way ? She felt tired and faint, and sat down on 
the window seat. 

“ I think I’ll do no more to-day,” she said. “After 
all, there’s plenty of time. There may be other wet 
days.” 

As she ceased speaking, a knock came to the door, 
and Molly’s voice was heard. 

“ If ye plaze, Miss Orcheton, Sir Anthony wishes to 
see ye in his study at once, if ye’ll be so good as to step 
down.” 

Lyle rose, rather bewildered. “ Yes, of course. 
I’ll go down directly.” 

She met Jane’s eyes. They looked prophetic ; but 
she said nothing. 

“ It will soon be tea-time,” said Lyle, with forced 
cheerfulness. “ Get it ready, will you, Jane, by the 
time I return, and let us have some lights. The room 
looks gloomy.” 

Then she went slowly down the stairs, wondering 
what her father’s summons could mean. 

As she opened the study door she saw him sitting in 
his big leather armchair by the fire. 

“You wanted me, dad,” she said cheerfully. 

He turned and looked at her. There was something 
so stern and reproachful in his gaze that her heart 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 167 

sank, and she felt the blood ebb slowly from her face 
and lips. 

“ What has — happened ? ” she asked faintly. 

“ Not much, I suppose, in your eyes,” said Sir An- 
thony, with a sternness she had never yet heard in his 
voice ; “ only that I # have discovered your deceit — that 
I have found my only child, whom I so loved and 
trusted, has been false to both the love and trust.” 

“ Father ! ” she cried. 

He looked at her still. There was no anger in his 
glance, only a sad, stern hopelessness. 

“ False ! ” he repeated. “ But all your sex are that. 
Why should I expect you to be different ? ” 

“ What do you mean ? Of what do you accuse 
me ? ” 

“ Of deceiving me,” he said. “You have been 
secretly meeting, love-making, with a man whom you 
know I personally dislike and disapprove of. You 
have made your name a byword among village 
gossips.” 

“ Father,” she cried again, “it’s not so. I can ex- 
plain ” 

“ Silence ! and hear me out. Explanation should 
have come from your lover’s lips, had he a spark- of 
manliness or honor. Instead of that he persuades you 
to secrecy— induces you, my daughter, a girl I thought 
so proud, to meet him in the woods as any village trull 
meets her boorish swain.” 

“This is all misrepresentation,” she said. “The 
truth is this, and I am not ashamed of it : I do love 
Derrick Mallory, and he loves me. I have met him but 
twice. He is coming here to speak to you and ask 


168 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

your consent. We did but wait until the Christmas 
holidays were over. Who has maligned us ? Who has 
told a tale that sounds false and unworthy ? Our love 
knows but two days' acknowledgment. I have not pur- 
posely deceived you." 

“ I say you have. You had no right to see or meet 
this man without my permission or my knowledge. 
His character bears no stainless record. He is im- 
moral — extravagant — reckless. He is no fit husband 
for you, and he knew it ; else he would have asked 
your father's sanction before persuading you to com- 
mence a clandestine intrigue." 

“ Oh ! dad," sobbed Lyle passionately, what are 
you saying ? Those are not your words, your thoughts ! 
Some one has been traducing him — filling your mind 
with resentment. Derrick is not what you say. He 
has been unfortunate, I grant ; but every one knows 
his debts were not of his original incurring. The 
property was encumbered. He was poor, and bur- 
dened with an expensive heritage. He sold it to clear 
himself, got a foreign appointment, and went away. 
That is the truth ! " 

“ The truth ! " scoffed Sir Anthony. “ Yes — the 
sort of truth with which a man fills the ears of a roman- 
tic girl. What other stories has he told you ? What 
other loves and fancies have filled his thirty years ? 
Why did he rush off to London so suddenly ? What 
kept him there so long ? Has he told you that ? " 

“I can trust him perfectly," she answered, with 
paling lips. 

“ Trust him ! You — a baby — a mere schoolgirl 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 169 

who knows nothing of life, of the world, of men ! I 
haven’t patience with such romantic nonsense.” 

“ Why are you so dreadfully prejudiced against Der- 
rick ? ” she asked. “ At least you might do him com- 
mon justice. Hear his story from his own lips — don’t 
take him on second-hand testimony.” 

In her heart she knew who had done her this evil 
turn ; the reason of that long interview in the 
study. 

“ I intend to see him,” said Sir Anthony grimly. 
“ Have no fears about that. I shall send for him, 
and ask an explanation of his most ungentlemanly 
conduct. Ho reason can excuse a man for placing a 
young girl in a false position, and in a place like this — 
where gossip is second nature.” 

Poor Lyle ! He cheeks were scorched with shamed, 
insulted pride. To have her innocent and beautiful 
love-dream rent asunder by coarse misrepresentation 
almost deprived her of words or self-defense. 

But suddenly courage returned. She had some one 
now to depend on — some one who would fight her bat- 
tle for her. It would be all right when Derrick ex- 
plained. At present her father was angry, and unable 
to judge calmly of the situation. To-morrow all would 
be different. 

She drew up her slight young figure. Sir Anthony 
watched her uneasily. He had made up his mind that 
this man was not the right husband for her, and, like 
all seemingly easy-going and careless individuals, he 
could be very obstinate when he chose, especially when 
he had conceived a liking or a prejudice. 

He liked Standish, and he disliked Derrick Mallory. 


170 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

That was the sum total of the whole matter. Lyle’s 
wealth should not go to this impoverished Irish roue, 
as he chose to call him — of that he was determined. 
It was only a girlish flirtation ; it must be nipped in 
the bad. Like many of those “ set in authority,” Sir 
Anthony had yet to discover that there is strength in 
the young sapling, and a pertinacity in the coming 
blossom that can defy even parental “nipping.” 

That outburst somewhat surprised him. The look 
of the hurt young face gave him an uncomfortable 
feeling of playing the tyrant. He was confronted by 
something outraged and accusing, instead of the culprit 
he had thought to arraign. But he was determined to 
hold his position. He averted his gaze, and said 
coldly : 

“ There is nothing to be gained by further discus- 
sion. I will write to Mr. Mallory to-night, and ask 
an explanation of his conduct. But do not expect 
that such explanation can alter my opinion. As for 
sanctioning any engagement between you, that is out 
of the question. There is not only the difference of 
position — you are my heiress, and he bnt a needy 
fortune-hunter — but also the bar of religion. He is a 
Roman Catholic. A marriage with him would entail 
troubles needless to enumerate under present circum- 
stances. The whole affair is impossible. As for love 
— the fancy of a girl for a man she has only met some 
half-dozen times, and of whose character, nature and 
habits she is entirely ignorant, is not worth the name. 
This is only a piece of romantic folly, and I confess I 
am surprised and disappointed in you, Lyle.” 

The young, sweet face grew very white. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 171 

“I am sorry we look at the matter so differently,” 
she said. “ I assure you, father, it is no light thing to 
me or to Derrick.” 

“ It is pure folly ! ” he repeated. 

“ I think not,” she answered gently. “ We are in 
deadly earnest, as you will find. My faith in him is as 
great as my love. Whatever happens, I shall never 
care for any other man, or marry one.” 

“ I am not asking you to marry any other man. I 
only say you shall not marry this one. When I see 
him, I will tell my objections and my reasons. I expect 
you to be guided by both.” 

“ I cannot disobey you, of course,” she said, very 
low. “ I must only trust that time will soften your 
prejudice. When you find we are both true and stead- 
fast and determined, you will be convinced this is not 
‘ pure folly,’ as you called it a moment ago.” 

“ It will take a good deal to convince me of that/’ 
he said curtly. “I want to save you from yourself, 
and from the after consequences of a girl’s romantic 
fancy. I shall spare no pains to do it. I have said 
all.” 

The tears rushed to her eyes. So kind, so generous, 
so loving, he had always been, and, now to speak like 
this ! To so misunderstand her at life’s most critical 
moment ! There was a pause. He averted his eyes 
and looked into the fire. She lingered, hoping he 
might speak again, but his attitude offered no encour- 
agement to remain. Silently she turned away and left 
the room, feeling sick and shamed and wounded to the 
quick. 

As she crossed the hall a loud ring pealed, and the 


172 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

butler went to open the door. She hurriedly drew 
aside. “ Not at home,” she whispered. 

She was afraid it might be Mrs. O’Neil, or some 
other visitor. She could not, dared not see any one 
to-day. She had no spirit left for conventionalities. 

As she shrank back in the shade of the portieres she 
heard a voice speaking that sent every pulse in her 
body throbbing. 

It was the voice of Derrick Mallory ! 


CHAPTER XX. 


Lyle uttered a faint cry ; then, regardless of dignity, 
rushed across the hall, and faced a dripping figure 
holding disappointed parley with Woodman. 

“ It’s you, Derrick ? Oh ! how lucky ! Come in at 
once.” 

The dignified butler looked quite at a loss to compre- 
hend such extraordinary conduct, but his young mis- 
tress waved him aside. Derrick took off his mackin- 
tosh and followed Lyle into the warm and dusky hall. 
Woodman retired to his own regions. 

“ Oh ! Derrick,” cried Lyle impetuously, “ thank 
God, you’ve come ! I have just had an awful scene 
with my father. Some one has seen us meeting in the 
Woods.” 

“ Seen us ? ” 

“ Yes ; and told him.” 

“ What did he say ? ” asked Derrick, 

“ He accuses you of being dishonorable, and is even 
now, I think, writing to forbid your calling or seeing 
me ever again ! You must go to him. You must ex- 
plain. Say I would not let you speak before. Oh ! 
it’s all my fault, and he is so angry. I never saw him 
so angry in my life.” 

Derrick looked at her in grave bewilderment. He 

W3 


174 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

did not like to have the ground cut from under his feet 
in this prompt manner, to be suddenly placed in a 
false position, and have to face its consequences. 

“ Who can have seen us ?” he asked. 

“1 don’t know,” said Lyle, crimsoning at the rec- 
ollection of her father’s words; “but I can give a 
very good guess at who has told this story. I am sure 
it was Mr. Standish.” 

“ Jasper Standish ! ” Derrick’s brow darkened. 
“ What concern is it of his ? ” 

“ I hate him ! ” exclaimed Lyle passionately. “ I 
am sure, too, he would do me an ill turn if he could. 
He was with my father an hour this afternoon. Then 
I was summoned to his study, and, as I said before, he 
spoke to me as he has never spoken in his life. Oh ! 
Derrick, you’ll be patient with him, won’t you, for my 
sake ? Some enemy has been poisoning his mind 
against you, but when he knows you, when he sees you 
are in earnest, he will give way. We may have to face 
opposition, even parting ; but so long as we are true, 
nothing can alter our present position — can it ? ” 

He looked at her sadly. “ My darling, it grieves me 
to have brought trouble on you so quickly. I knew 
your father was not very cordially disposed towards me, 
but I did not think it was as bad as you say.” 

“ What made you call ? ” asked Lyle. 

“ I thought a formal visit was preferable to not see- 
ing you at all. Can I see Sir Anthony ? ” 

“ I will ask him,” said Lyle. 

She was feeling a little hurt and sore. He had 
given her no lover’s greeting : had not even seemed to 
remember it. The first chilling touch of life outside 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 175 

her charmed circle had pressed upon it already ; noth- 
ing would ever be quite the same as on those two bliss- 
ful days when they had been all the world to each 
other. 

She turned to go, when Derrick’s voice called her 
back. He held out his arms, and she crept into their 
fond shelter, and with a little sob laid her head upon 
his heart. 

“Ah! dear,” he said, “I feared this. We were too 
happy. I knew something must happen. But not so 
soon. Still, dearest, we must be brave. We must 
fight our battle as best we can. If the worst comes 
to the worst, it is only a question of waiting till you 
are of age. Then no one can prevent you marrying 
me if you choose.” 

“ Not even your priests ? ” she asked hesitatingly. 
“ Father seemed to think ” 

She felt his arms relax, and, 'drawing herself away, 
saw that his face looked pale and troubled. 

“I . . . I forgot. Let me see him, Lyle. Best 

get it over. It’s an ordeal, but I have faced — 
worse.” 

She was to remember that expression hereafter, and 
interpret it for herself. Now it passed her ear, leaving 
no definite meaning behind it. 

“ Come, then,” she said, and led the way to where 
the tapestry portieres fell between hall and study. 

She knocked at the door, and her father’s voice bade 
her enter. She turned the handle and went bravely 
in. He was still sitting in the same chair, almost in 
the same position. The fire had died down, a shaded 
reading lamp lit the long room but dimly. 


176 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ Father,” she said, “ not five minutes ago Mr. Mal- 
lory chanced to call. He wishes to speak to you.” 

Sir Anthony turned a surprised and very haughty 
face towards the bold intruder. He bowed coldly. 

u Leave us, Lyle,” he said. “ If your presence is 
necessary, I will summon you.” 

With one look of pity and encouragement at her 
lover’s face, the girl went softly away, closing the door 
behind her. 

She forgot about tea, about the two awaiting her in 
the turret. All her thoughts were concentrated on 
that momentous interview as she sat or paced to and 
fro in the dim-lit hall, waiting in agonized suspense its 
issue. 

Woodman lit the lamp in the outer entrance, and 
the wax candles in the brass sconces. He felt some- 
thing was amiss, and gave a pretty accurate guess as 
to its nature. Being a confirmed misogynist himself, 
however, he only put it down to “ young folk’s foolish- 
ness.” 

Slowly the moments passed ! What was happening ? 
What were they saying ? 

Hope sickened and died out of her heart. She felt 
that trouble was at hand. She had come to a sudden 
block in the path of existence. 

At last she heard the study door open. She stood 
perfectly still, her heart throbbing painfully, her eyes 
strained. Derrick came towards her. One look at his 
white, set face was enough. 

“ Your father wishes to see you,” he said. 

An icy chill ran through her whole frame. She 
asked no question. There was no need. Blank de- 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 177 

spair sat on clouded brow, and brooded in hopeless 
eyes. 

In some blind, unconscious fashion she crossed the 
space, and he stood aside and held the door open for 
her to enter. 

Sir Anthony was standing by the table. As she ad- 
vanced he looked up, and his face grew less stern and 
forbidding. 

“ Lyle,” he said, “ I have a very unpleasant duty to 
fulfil, and I want to do it as briefly as possible. Mr. 
Mallory has done* me the honor to ask for your hand. 
I have no fault to find with what he says of his posi- 
tion, or his prospects. If I considered him a suitable 
husband for you, they would amply satisfy me, for 
your own fortune would enable you to live as you have 
always been accustomed to live. Mind, I said a suit- 
able husband. But I do not find him that . I will give 
you my reasons. First comes the, to me, insuperable 
bar of difference of religious faith. Marriage is one of 
the Sacraments of the Romish Church. Marriage with 
one of a different faith entails stipulations and condi- 
tions that are both humiliating and objectionable. Am 
I not right, Mr. Mallory ? ” 

Derrick bowed. His face was ashen white ; his 
hands grasped a chair-back as if to stay their trem- 
bling. 

“1 have a book here,” continued Sir Anthony, 
“ which explains the principal dogmas of this Church. 
My opinions may be prejudiced, doubtless they are; 
but on this point of marriage between what is termed 
a heretic and a true believer there is a great deal of 
truth. It would suit similar instances of dissimilar 
12 


iy8 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

faiths. That is objection number one, and Mr. Mal- 
lory has no argument that can confute it. 

“ Then comes the second, and it is one with which 
I will allow you to deal for yourself, Lyle. It relates 
to his moral character, and is of vital importance to 
your future. You are young, a mere school-girl, 
whose knowledge of men is founded on romances, 
novels, and girlhood’s dreams of the other sex. These 
are very, very far from realities. Mr. Mallory is un- 
fortunately the descendant of a family renowned for 
their gambling proclivities and their infidelities to 
women. 

“ It is not his fault. I am not blaming him, and 
had I had satisfactory proof that in his own case 
these hereditary traits were not visible, I might have 
taken a more hopeful view of the future. But he has 
no record to show that would enable me to take this 
view. No, sir, don’t interrupt — yet. After I have 
said all I intend to say, you can make good your case, 
if you wish. Now, Lyle, looking at the matter from a 
common-sense point of view, I foresee a very troubled 
and disastrous future out of such unpromising materials. 

“ But this is not all. . . . Iam going to pain 

you, I fear ; but if your lover can justify himself in 
your eyes, that pain will be short-lived. On first meet- 
ing you, Mr. Mallory paid you rather marked atten- 
tions ; sufficiently so to attract notice in a place like 
this and lead to remark. Suddenly, without word or 
reason, he left the place and went to London. Did he 
give you any reason for doing so ? ” 

Lyle raised her white face and looked at Derrick, 

(( Why should he ? There was no necessity.” 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 179 

“ There was necessity enough after he had led you to 
suppose he cared for you. But, to continue. When 
he returned, after an interval of nearly two months, 
did he allude to this absence or its reasons ? ” 

“No,” she said faintly, and with an appealing look 
ot Derrick's downcast face and quivering lips. “I 
asked for none.” 

“ Naturally. I know your nature. You are very 
proud, very trustful. You would never seem to claim 
by right what was not offered you spontaneously. 
Well, ask him now. I — know the reason. I shall 
know if he tells you the truth. I will leave you to 
learn it from his own lips. If after that you still wish 
to marry him, I can only say I have greatly misjudged 
your strength of character. Mr. Mallory, I will wish 
you good night. Our interview has been most un- 
pleasant, but do me the credit to confess it was not of 
my seeking.” 

With a distant bow he left the room, and the two 
standing on either side of the oak table looked at each 
other with sudden terrified questioning. 

Then with the impulse of desperation Derrick crossed 
to Lyle's side and threw himself on the rug before her, 
clasping her with a passionate strength. 

“ My dear,” he cried, “oh, what can I say ? I 
meant to tell you always — always. Fate has forced my 
hand cruelly in this matter. Lyle, whatever you think, 
whatever I may appear, I did love you from that first 
hour our eyes met ! But when I found how dear you 
were getting, I knew I had a duty to perform before I 
could speak, before I could dare to ask for your love. 
Oh ! how can I tell you ? You will never believe that 


i8o The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

I was true in heart and soul. How I raged, how I 
cursed folly, indolence, indifference, whatever it is 
that drives a man to place himself in a false position ! 
Oh ! Lyle, you are so young, good, so pure — how can 
I make you understand ? ” 

His voice broke. 

She drew herself away from his clinging touch ; a 
chill as of ice seemed to rest on her heart and slacken 
its wild beats. 

“I think I — understand,” she said slowly. “ There 
was some one else ? ” 

He made no answer. For one long torturing mo- 
ment their hearts throbbed in a silence of unbroken 
misery. Then he slowly rose to his feet, and placed 
her in the chair where Sir Anthony had been sitting. 
He hardly dared look at her face, it was so altered, so 
woful, so aged. 

“Lyle,” he said, “I could wish you were less pure, 
less proud, less innocent. It is not a pleasant story I 
have to tell you — it never could have been. Though I 
hoped when you knew me better you would judge me 
more tenderly. Briefly, it is this. When I came home 
from India, there was on board the steamer a — a woman 
— who represented herself as a widow. We were much 
together. I cared nothing for her, save as a man care-s 
for a companion who amuses or interests him. But 
she — well, never mind details. There are things a 
man can’t say about a woman who professes to care for 
him. There was the usual drifting, the sentiment of 
moonlight and idle hours. I only found out later that 
she was no widow. She had a husband, though he 
was an incarcerated madman. With regard to herself, 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 181 

she was but an adventuress — a swallow who lived on 
men's summers. I found it necessary to throw of! her 
would-be shackles peremptorily. But for a time she 
contrived to make my hours and days very unpleasant. 

“ When I met you, Lyle, I resolved there should be 
an end. I went up to London for that purpose, and 
after some difficulty managed to shake myself free of 
her. But how could I tell you — how explain ? By 
some means your father has heard of this. Perhaps 
through the same kind friend who brought him word of 
our single tryst. He thinks I am immoral, untrust- 
worthy ; that I do not love you. Oh, Lyle ! Lyle ! ” 

She had not spoken a word. By no look or sign had 
he any intimation of what that confession had meant 
to her, till suddenly he met her eyes. But in that 
moment something seemed to have been cast out of her 
life, and the effort at casting it aside left her faint and 
sick. It was only a girl’s faith, a girl’s innocent belief. 
Nothing much in a man’s eyes, nothing much in a 
woman’s when she has drunk of the waters of experi- 
ence and known them bitter. But much, all, every- 
thing, to a nature as yet untried. That first hearing 
of another’s name coupled with his own seared her 
soul with a lightning flash of agony. He had been the 
one and sole god of her worship, but she — she was only 
one of many to him. 

All youth’s hope and credulity died within her. She 
only thought of herself as rivaling some one less fair 
perhaps, less capable of chaining a man’s fancy ; but 
still only — rivaling. She was not all, she had never 
been all to him, even in those days and hours she had 
loved to recall as pregnant with meaning. It was all 


182 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

wrong, all a mistake. Her father had indeed been 
wise when he read this man’s character. 

As his voice rang out, sounding her name with im- 
ploring passion, she felt stung and outraged. The 
conflict of faith with its first misgivings was all of 
which she was conscious. 

She rose to her feet. 

“ It is a shameful story,” she said. “ If you have 
any sense of right, of honor, go to her. Go to the 
woman who believed in you. I want no second-hand 
vows, or kisses, or — love ! ” 

Her voice broke. Her eyes were cold and wrathful 
still, but the effort to speak, to put into plain words 
her broken faith, was beyond her. 

He rose too, and laid one hand against the table, 
leaning heavily on it. 

“Do you mean it?” he asked. “Can you so mis- 
judge me ? Is your love worth no more than this ? ” 

“Your own words have been your judge,” she said. 
“ You are not what I thought you. You — never 
were.” 

A hot shamed flush rose to his brow. “I am 
rightly punished,” he said bitterly. “I might have 
known. Ho reed so brittle to lean upon as a girl’s 
faith. She has no pity, no comprehension of any sin 
that seems to hurt her own vanity.” 

“If you think that,” she said proudly, “you have 
learned your lesson in a false school. There is nothing 
more to say.” 


CHAPTER XXL 


“ My child,” said a tender voice. 

Lyle lifted her head from her arms. It had been 
resting there from the moment that a closing door had 
seemed to her like the falling of cold earth on a coffin 
lid. Behind, lay death and desolation. 

Her father was standing beside her. The old love 
was in his eyes, the old tenderness in his voice. 

“ It is hard for you, my dear,” he said, “very hard ; 
hut it would have been a thousand times worse to 
brave — later. Some day you will be glad it came when 
it did.” 

He stood looking sadly at the agonized young face. 
It is hard enough for a parent to learn he has been sup- 
planted, but it is harder still when he finds that the 
usurper is unworthy. 

A little wan smile touched her lips. “ If it was 
bound to come,” she said, “I am glad it has happened 
now. I need not expect — anything more.” 

“ My child,” he said sadly. “ My poor child ! ” 

She was trembling like a leaf, but her eyes were tear- 
less. “ You were quite right, dad,” she said. “I was 
headstrong and foolish. I thought myself so sure. I 
am rightly served.” 

“ The worse you can think of him the better. He 
is an unprincipled scoundrel. No doubt, bad as his 
confession was, it was not hiilf as bad as the real case.” 

183 


184 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“It was bad enough,” she said slowly. “I should 
not like to think it — worse.” 

She half rose, but he saw she was too unnerved to 
stand, and put her gently back into the chair. 

“ Sit down, child,” he said gently. “You are not 
fit to face others yet. I wish I could comfort you, Lyle ; 
but no one in this world can play the part of Providence 
to even the dearest thing they love. Every heart 
knows its own bitterness and must bear its own burden. 
I wanted to save you from disgrace, perhaps ruin in the 
future. I could not ease the blow, save by letting him 
deal it.” 

She did not speak. 

“I have heard many things about Derrick Mallory,” 
he went on, “ but as I so plainly discouraged his visits, 
I had no immediate fear of — what has happened.” 

“You are in no way to blame,” she said. “ It was I 
myself all through.” 

“You are very young,” he said sadly, “and you had 
no mother to watch over, or advise you. A father, 
however dearly he loves his child, cannot follow the 
windings and turnings of her fancy or her heart. I 
tried my best to save you, but it was too late even 
then.” 

“ Yes,” she echoed ; “ it has been too late for a long, 
long time.” 

“ Now that you have learned his unworthiness,” con- 
tinued her father, “you must summon all your courage 
to help you in forgetting him. Fortunately his time in 
this country is short. He has to return to India.” 

He saw her shiver involuntarily. His eyes grew dark 
with anger. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 185 

“ A man who takes a human life,” he said, “ suffers 
the due punishment of his crime ; but a man who 
comes into the fair garden of a girl’s young heart, 
tramples it, withers it, destroys it, he can go scot 
free ! ” 

She hid her face in her hands in a sudden paroxysm 
of grief. “ Only yesterday I was so happy. I thanked 
God that it was possible to be so happy, and now it can 
never come again — never.” 

He let her cry unrebuked. Grief was more natural 
than that stony calm. 

At last she dashed the tears aside. “ To think,” 
she said, “ that I could have pained you for sake of — 
him. Forgotten our long years of love and confidence. 
Oh, dad, how wise you were — how wise ! ” 

“ Yet you do not feel inclined to thank me. Ah! 
child, I know, I know. It is hard to bear at first.” 

“ I will stay with you,” she said brokenly. “ It is 
the best place for me.” 

“ God knows I have no desire that you should leave 
me,” he said fondly. “My home is yours for all your 
life, if you wish.” 

“ I will go to my room now,” she said presently ; 
“for to-night I would rather see no one — just be by 
myself. You will excuse me at dinner ?” 

“ Yes, if you feel you would rather be alone. But 
brooding and thinking won’t make it easier to bear, my 
child.” 

“ Only to-night,” she said, and looked at him with 
eyes whose pitiful misery stabbed him to the 
heart. 

“I did it for the best,” he told himself. “ For the 


186 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

best. He was to blame. He could not defend his 
own conduct. I left him to do it, and he failed. ” 

She put his arm aside and stood up. He thought 
with a bitter pang how all the lovely youth and hope 
had gone from her in this one hour, and could have 
cursed the man who was the cause. But words were 
uneless, and curses too. They mended nothing, al- 
tered nothing. 

In the mills of Pain the hearts of all are ground — 
some to powder, some to chaff; some are bruised, and 
some are crushed forever. For stronger than Love 
and Life and Joy is the hand of Fate — and none can 
master or withstand it. 

* * * * * 

After that first shock and agony of disillusion a dull 
calm settled upon Lyle. She told Nora that her father 
had for good reasons refused his consent to any engage- 
ment with Derrick Mallory ; that all was over between 
them. Kora was only half-satisfied, but she did not 
like to press for reasons that were rigidly withheld. 
Lyle could not betray his unworthiness to a third 
person. It was humiliating enough to know it herself. 

Between the two girls, who had been so devoted, and 
so happy in their innocent friendship, a strange silence 
and coldness crept. Each had her own sorrow to com- 
bat, her own secret to guard. Suddenly they had 
reached a point where neither could be of any help. 
There were no more confidences in their rooms at night, 
none of the laughing jests and tricks of old. But the 
days lagged wearily, and on both young hearts lay the 
burden of unuttered pain. Their eager hands, out- 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 187 

stretched to the roses in life’s garden, had been filled 
with thorns instead. 

Sometimes in those dreary days, when the snow or 
the rain fell and the wind moaned drearily round the 
old house, Lyle would go up to her turret and gaze 
sadly down that leafless avenue, where her feet had 
sped so gayly and unconsciously to meet her doom. 
She had no heart now to finish her pretty “ Sister 
Anne’s Chamber. ” She would move listlessly to and 
fro, or sit idly gazing into the fire, trying to believe 
life would go back to its normal condition ; that her 
“ fated fairy prince ’’would soon be only a memory; 
that those two blissful days were part of a dream from 
which she had been roughly awakened ; that love was 
a delusion and a snare. It could be well dispensed 
with. 

And all the time that she shut her eyes to aught 
beyond that important circle of personal unhappiness, 
events were happening around her so fateful and so 
tragic, that in after years she asked herself how she 
could have been so blind as not to see them. 

The bad weather had kept all visitors from the Her- 
mitage. Even Mrs. O’Neil had not ventured out. 

She scribbled a note to Lyle, saying she was con- 
fined to her room with a severe cold, and asking her to 
come and see her if she could spare an hour ; but Lyle 
shrank from going near the house. She could not face 
the ordeal of a chance meeting with Derrick, and she 
was not sure whether he had left Ireland. She wrote 
sympathizingly, but excused herself from going over 
on account of indisposition. 

So the days drifted on, each seeming a week in 


i88 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

length, till they reached New Year’s Eve. Sir An- 
thony was a little weary of the melancholy evenings. 
No one would play or sing, no friend dropped in for a 
hand at whist or nap. They had seen nothing of Jas- 
per Standish, and Dr. Dan wrote that he was at his 
wits’ end to cope with the sickness raging in the little 
town. Workmen came to and fro, completing and 
furnishing and decorating the unfinished rooms, and in 
the daytime Sir Anthony demanded Lyle’s help and 
advice as much as possible in order to distract her 
thoughts. But for the long winter evenings there was 
no disrtaction save what they could give each other. 

Nora’s bright spirits seemed to have vanished. She 
was pale and listless. Her eyes were heavy, and their 
dark circles spoke of sleepless nights. Now and then 
she would try to shake off this despondent frame of 
mind, but the effort was plainly an effort. The laugh- 
ter was forced, the jests were mirthless. 

On New Year’s Eve, Dr. Dan came over. He was 
shocked at the change in his pretty ward. She looked 
but the shadow of her old bright self, so thin and pale 
and spiritless. But like every one else he put the 
change down to grief for her father, and the horror of 
his tragic fate. 

Meanwhile strange rumors were spreading through 
the village as to that fate, and murmurs as to the In- 
spector’s laxity in the matter of arrest were rife on 
every occasion. 

“ Sure an’ is it kilt an’ murdered in our beds we’re 
to be, an’ niver a sowl the wiser ? ” was an observation 
that reached Jasper’s ears more frequently than lie 
liked. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 189 

The reward was stimulating energies, and he was 
perpetually receiving information of suspicious events 
or appearances, but he dismissed them peremptorily. 
Yet to all intents and purposes he was much occupied, 
and though he seemed to keep his own counsel, there 
were not wanting hints of meaning on the track of his 
footsteps. 

“When the time comes,” he would say in answer to 
queries or demands. 

“ An’ whin that’ll be, not all the saints in glory can 
tell us,” muttered the gossips. 

New Year’s Eve found the Inspector in his gloomy 
little study, once more busy with that private notebook. 
The window was closely curtained : he had turned the 
key in the door. The fire blazed brightly, and his un- 
failing comforter, the spirit bottle, was on the table by 
his side. 

He shut the book with a vicious snap, and leaned his 
head on his hands, trying to follow out a plan of reason- 
ing. v 

“Will it be safe — yet?” so ran his thoughts. 
“ The links fit pretty closely, but there are not enough. 
If I show my hand too soon, the game will be lost. I 
must secure myself first before I make a move. Now, 
that weak pretty fool is the only buffer between me 
and the blow that may come my way. I render two 
weapons powerless if I use her against them. That 
proud English minx is not to be fooled, and her old 
father is not the sort of man to win over to my schemes. 

I have no hold on him. True, I’ve parted her from her 
lover. Fool ! Ah ! twice and treble fool that he was 
to have won the love of a girl like that and let her slip 


190 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

through his fingers. Had she cared for me, I’d have 
held her against everything — the whole world — herself 
included.” 

He drank a tumblerful of the potent spirit by his 
side, and then began to pace the room restlessly, talk- 
ing half-aloud. 

“ Crime ! Who talks of crime ? A man must needs 
serve his own necessities ; it is no crime to put away 
that which stands between. If it were, then every 
ruler, every general, every statesman would be a crimi- 
nal. To live, we must destroy. Only the strong are 
fitted to survive. Place and power fall only to the 
adventurous. No good thing is gained without strug- 
gle, or kept without strength. All life shows it. It is 
the scheme of the universe. The Creator takes life as 
relentlessly as he gives it. The wheel of destiny rolls 
ever on and on, crushing all that is in its way. Man but 
follows its example, save where cowardice forbids.” 

The blood flushed his temples. He threw back his 
head and laughed aloud. 

“ If this succeeds, all will go well. Promotion fol- 
lows, then fortune. It is a daring scheme, but its very 
daring will serve my ends. The case will seem to fail 
for just one tittle of evidence. The law will be satisfied, 
the tongues will wag so furiously that she can never 
hold up her head again. To be guilty in all but the 
actual verdict of guilt is enough to ruin her. She will 
face her own condemnation. My zeal and my discretion 
will have accomplished their purpose.” 

Again he drank. Again the blood mounted to his 
head, fired his veins, thrilled him with wild, fierce 
resolve. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 191 

So the Old Year left him — wicked of heart, evil of 
purpose — triumphing with unholy joy over the weak and 
helpless — weaving schemes that should wreck and ruin 
innocent lives, trampling under foot all scruples and 
all fear. 

So the New Year found him — dazed and drunken 
and evil still, while through storm and stress of the 
dying night the bells pealed out their message to his 
unheeding ears. 


CHAPTER XXII. 


“Theke’ll be bad work this year, Norry girl,” said 
pretty Molly, the housemaid. “ Divil a bit av luck for 
any av us.” 

“ Glory be ! What’s happened, thin ?” 

“ Arrah, didn’t that red-haired imp av a Mickey 
Doolan cross the threshold the first thing as the door 
was opened ? An’ that fule av an English cook knew 
no better than to laugh whin I tould her ’twas the 
worst av luck. He came wid a letter, he said, and 
wouldn’t go till he’d delivered it. There’s for you 
now ! An’ who do you think the letter was for ? Tell 
me that ! ” 

“ How should I know, Molly ? Not for you, nor me 
neither. An’ as for the young ladies ” 

“ Ah ! musha, young ladies. What would the likes 
av thim be wantin’ wid that thafe av the wurrld — 
Mickey ! Ah ! may he die an’ give the crows a puddin’ 
for this day’s bad luck. No, gurl, it was Mrs. Grapnell 
he was wantin’ spache wid, an’ sure she was down-stairs 
in two shakes av a lamb’s tail whin she heard it, an’ 
out in the garden they were colloguing for iver so 
long, an’ she’s cornin’ in all av a trimble an’ white as the 
driven snow, an’ not a word good or bad did she spake. 
Only up to her room an’ shut herself in. That’s just 
what happened now ! Make the best ye can av it,” 

192 


193 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ It’s little best any av us can be makin’ av thim as 
lives in this house, ” said Honora. “ Sich gloomy 
faces, an* shtrange ways, an’ now the ill-luck to come 
on thim all as soon as they’ve set foot in the place. 
Sure an’ indade it’s sorry I am I listened to me mother’s 
perswashins an’ tuk the situation. Less money an’ 
pleasanter company would suit me better any day. 
An’ the strict rules, an’ always that English cook for- 
gettin’ about the fish av a Friday, an’ sayin’ it’s the 
housekeeper’s fault. Musha ! A pretty housekeeper ! 
A face as sour as a crab-apple.” 

“ That’s thrue for ye. Only that the wages is good 
an’ paid regular, an’ the work aisy enough between the 
two av us, it’s meself wouldn’t care to put up wid it a 
month longer.” 

“ There’s the bell, Molly : an’ thetaynot wet. Sure 
’tis you are yer mother’s own spit for gossip. Be off 
wid ye, or ’tis gettin’ notice an’ not givin’ it ye’ll be.” 

Meanwhile, in her own room Jane Grapnell was sit- 
ting before a small table. A pile of paper lay before 
her, covered with her neat small handwriting. Her 
hand shook visibly as she added page after page, but 
she never paused. She wrote with a feverish energy, 
as if against time, and her face was indeed what Molly 
had described it, “ white as the driven snow.” 

When she paused at last, the clock was striking 
eight. It was her breakfast hour, and habits of dis- 
cipline are not lightly broken. Bising from the table, 
she blotted the sheets and locked them into a small 
leather portfolio, with a key which she wore round her 
neck, attached to a fine silver chain. That done, she 
enclosed it in a large sheet of paper and sealed it 
13 


194 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

securely. Holding it in her hand, she looked round 
the room as if she sought a hiding-place. 

The search was vain. A strange, hunted look came 
into her eyes. 

“ I daren’t leave it here,” she whispered half-aloud. 
“ If there’s a search, he might keep it. There’s no 
trusting such a villain.” 

Her eyes fell on a white fleecy shawl lying on a chair. 
It was one of Nora’s. She had brought it there to 
mend. Snatching it up, she threw it over her arm, so 
as to conceal the box, and left the room. 

***** 

Nora was the first to enter the breakfast room on 
that New Year’s morning. On the table beside her 
plate lay a letter. As she saw the writing, a wave of 
color came into her pale face. Something of the old 
brightness and light shone in her eyes. She snatched 
it eagerly. 

First fell out a card. A simple thing enough, only 
a wreath of violets and the stereotyped greeting. But 
the sender’s name was on it, and her heart thrilled at 
sign of remembrance. Enclosed was a thin slip of 
paper, on which was written something. She read it, 
her face one blush of delight, then thrust it hastily 
into her pocket, as she heard Lyle’s voice without. 
She entered with Sir Anthony. 

Nora turned to greet them. They both looked won- 
deringly at her changed face, and Lyle recognized 
once more the old impetuous warmth in her kiss, the 
old girlish ring in her voice. 

“Something has happened. You’ve had good 
news ? ” she said, smiling at the bright face. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 195 

“ Yes ; the best of news, and of luck — remembrance 
from a friend I thought had forgotten me.” 

“ Ah ! cards,” said Lyle listlessly, looking at a pile 
for herself. She did not open them, only pushed them 
indifferently away, and began to pour out tea. 

The sun was shining at last after that dreary week 
of rain. The air was once more balmy and spring-like. 
Life was alert in the world without ; the blue of sky 
and river wore a lovely radiance through the yet leaf- 
less trees. 

“ You must go out to-day, both of you,” said Sir 
Anthony. “ You'll lose all your roses cooped up in the 
house day after day. Order the horses, Lyle, and have 
a good gallop.” 

She glanced at Nora. 

“ I should love it,” said the girl, with subdued 
eagerness. 

“ Very well,” agreed Lyle. “ I will order the horses 
to be brought round after breakfast. That will give 
us nearly three hours before lunch.” 

“ There's a meet at Mount Urris, isn't there ? ” said 
Sir Anthony presently. “ You could ride over and see 
them throw off. It's only five miles from us.” 

Again Nora's face flushed and paled. How Fate was 
playing into her hands to-day ! 

“ I was thinking of that,” she said. “ I haven't seen 
a meet this season. Do you ever mean to hunt, 
Lyle ? ” 

“ Father doesn’t wish it,” she answered indifferently. 

“ No,” said Sir Anthony. “If I had half a dozen 
daughters it would be different. I don't want to 
tempt Providence, and prevention is better than cure 


196 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

when there’s a risk of broken necks and arms. I 
never could bear to see women in the field. They 
spoil men’s sport, and don’t get much of their own.” 

“It’s rank heresy to say that in Ireland, Sir An- 
thony,” said Nora. “ Women pride themselves on their 
horsemanship, and to be ( in at the death ’ is a feminine 
proverb.” 

“ That may be. I don’t like it, and I won’t allow 
Lyle to hunt as long as I have any authority over her.” 

The subject dropped, and as soon as breakfast was 
over Nora ran up to her own room to see about her 
habit — in reality, to read over that treasured scrawl 
which had seemed to lift her to sight and sense of 
happiness once again. 

Once swung ipto the saddle, and cantering gayly 
down the drive, her sense of exhilaration reached its 
height. Lyle could not understand her gayety. Yet 
even to herself came that feeling of pleasure born of 
a good mount, the brisk rush of cool, sweet air, warm 
sunshine and youth. The reaction after long days, 
sleepless nights, tear-filled hours, was a relief for 
which she was duly grateful. 

True, the relief was but temporary, but who is not 
thankful for the lull of pain in an aching nerve, though 
the visit to the dentist still lurks in the background ? 

The horses were fresh, and required management, 
so the girls did not waste time in talking. They 
arrived at Mount Urris in time to see a goodly array of 
redcoats, top boots, and riding habits ; also a multi- 
tude of vehicles of all sorts and conditions. 

Then suddenly it dawned upon Lyle that Derrick 
might be there. She had not thought of the possi- 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 197 

bility, but now it flashed across her, and made her rein 
in her horse in a manner at which she showed strong 
disapproval. 

At that moment a cheery voice called out her name, 
and she found the remonstrating forelegs of Meteor 
close to the low phaeton of Belle O’Neil. Wrapped in 
furs, and husky of voice, that lady had been unable to 
resist the temptation of such a gathering as this. 
Half the county favored the Mount Urris meets. 

“I was just wondering if you’d be here,” she ex- 
claimed. “ A nice friendly neighbor you are indeed ! 
Never been to see me, and there was I shut up between 
my own four walls the best part of a week, and not a 
soul to speak to — save Derry. And you know, or will 
know some day, that a man is none too fond of putting 
his nose in a sick room. Well, here I am, though, and 
I as good as told Dr. Dan that he might save himself 
the trouble of saying ‘ No,’ for I’d made up my mind. 
Are you going to follow, Lyle ?” 

“No,” she said, thankful for the restlessness that 
made Meteor prance and curvet till her face and voice 
were under control. “ I only rode over with Nora to 
see them throw off.” 

“ Derrick’s about somewhere,” continued Mrs. 
O’Neil, “mounted on a perfect devil of a horse, too. 
Blackskin they call him, and, faith ! he is black ; and 
an eye — you should see it, Lyle — rolling fire set in 
ebony. I’m terrified at the brute ; but he’s a fine 
jumper — would take anything.” 

She looked about. “ I can’t see him anywhere,” she 
said. “ I expect Derry keeps him out of the crowd. 
Where’s Nora ? I thought she was with you.” 


198 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

Lyle glanced round. She could not see her friend 
anywhere. “I don’t know,” she said. 

“Ah, there she is, talking to Mr. Standish,” ex- 
claimed Mrs. O’Neil. “ That flirtation has hung fire a 
bit lately. Ah ! poor girl, though, I was forgetting 
that sad story. Lyle, my dear, isn’t it most mysteri- 
ous that no word can be got as to the man who did that 
murder ? The last time I was talking to Jasper Stan- 
dish I said so to him. And what do you think he an- 
swered ? — and there was a meaning with it too, or I’m 
no judge. ‘ Don’t be too sure,’ he said, f that it was a 
man who did it.’ Now, wasn’t that queer ? What do 
you make of it ? ” 

“ I think, candidly, that Mr. Standish has given 
himself very little trouble to discover who committed 
it, whether man or woman,” said Lyle coldly. “ But 
it seems highly improbable that any one but a man 
could have done it. Think of the strength needed ; 
the broken window, the fallen bar ! ” 

“ I said that to him. Those were my very words, 
and he answered me straight that the window could 
have been broken and the bar loosed from its socket, 
inside the room, as easily as outside.” 

Lyle started. “ What an extraordinary thing ! Does 
he mean any one in the house ? But that’s impos- 
sible.” 

“ My dear, crimes are often committed by just the 
last person we think could possibly commit them. 1 
don’t know what Jasper meant, but ’twas very strange. 
Ah, there’s Derry, edging along outside of the crowd. 
I think he’s coming this way.” 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 199 

Lyle’s heart gave a quick, sickening throb ; her 
hands grew suddenly nerveless. 

“ I think,” she said hurriedly, “I’ll go and see after 
Nora. We shall meet again, Mrs. O’Neil.” She 
turned her horse, and rode away, leaving Mrs. O’Neil 
in a state of surprise at such an abrupt departure. 

But Lyle had no intention of joining Nora. She did 
not wish to see or speak to Jasper Standish. Her one 
idea had been to evade Derrick. She carefully avoided 
the vehicles, steering Meteor in and out of the noisy, 
excited crowd, the plunging horses and garrulous 
drivers. 

Arrived at a point of vantage, she glanced carelessly 
round. Ah ! there he was. The blood raced through 
her veins. The mere sight of that tall figure, that 
proudly poised head, made her feel faint and dizzy. 
Pride was up in arms, but then fell down abased. She 
had not forgotten that brief joy, that too sweet dream. 

Now to the memory was added a touch of jealousy 
bitter and torturing. He was beside a woman, re- 
adjusting the reins, bending slightly forward in the 
act. Every movement of his hands and turn of his 
head seemed to send red-hot pincers into her heart. 
She was nothing to him any longer — cast out of his life, 
disregarded, perhaps forgotten. 

She loitered there in the background, wishing Nora 
would end that long colloquy with Jasper Standish, 
hoping that Mrs. O’Neil would not take it into her 
head to tell Derrick she was present. Not that it 
would matter — they were parted forever. 

Presently there was a stir. She caught sight of the 
hounds threading their way in an eager, straggling pro- 


200 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

cession. Horses pricked their ears, riders settled them- 
selves more firmly in saddle. Those who meant busi- 
ness looked alert, and drew away from the crowd. 

Lyle, unconscious what was meant, let her horse go 
pretty well as he wished. She had some vague idea 
that Nora would join her as soon as the hounds were in 
covert. 

Suddenly there came a cheer, the crack of whips, a 
blare of that music from the hounds’ throats so dear to 
the huntsmen’s ears. 

The sound of a horn thrilled out on the air, and a 
cry of “ Forrad ! Forrad away !” 

Before she had time to think what it all meant, or 
what she was to do, Lyle felt the reins wrenched from 
her careless hands. Meteor had decided that inaction 
at such a moment was impossible. She was conscious 
of flight, swift and easy, through the air, of dark 
specks to right, to left, in front of her, of trees racing 
by in headlong fury, of a broad white band streaming 
along dark fields and furrows. She grasped the reins 
instinctively, but, knowing the horse had “got his 
head,” left further proceedings to his own discretion. 

A sort of delirium swept over her. 

Sky and field and trees intermingled. Everything 
seemed mad and wild with motion. The madness 
touched herself ; she could have laughed aloud. The 
blood ran riot through her veins, the sunlight flashed, 
the wind whistled. Brown shadows came and went ; 
they were passed in flight, she scarce knowing what 
they meant. On and on, swifter and swifter, till sud- 
denly a dull thud of hoofs beat close to her side. 
Nearer and nearer they came. The black satin coat 


201 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

and outstretched neck of another horse was in line with 
Meteor’s head. 

She thought of those words, “ rolling fire set in 
ebony/’ 

A voice, whose tones set every nerve throbbing, 
sounded at her. ear. “ Turn, if you can,” it said. 
“ There’s a nasty bit over the next fence.” 

Then a hasty exclamation, “My God! Ijyle, is it 
you ? Can’t you turn ? ” 

“No!” she gasped breathlessly, conscious only of 
the impatient movement with which Meteor tore at 
the curb as her hand closed on it. 

“ Then let him go. Follow me, and trust to Provi- 
dence.” 

She saw the big hunter shoot on ahead, going straight 
as an arrow for that blackthorn hedge, beyond which 
might lie — anything. Somehow, it didn’t seem to 
matter now. 

Meteor, stimulated by example, followed on those 
flying hoofs. She shut her eyes involuntarily. Her 
knees clenched tight about the pommel, and for the 
first time since that headlong race began her hand 
grasped the saddle. Her loosened hair fell like a cloud 
about her. She felt that now familiar rise ; then — a 
stumble, a quick scrambling effort, and — peace ! 

Wearied with the last supreme effort. Meteor slack- 
ened pace, then stopped ; his flanks heaving, his breath 
pumped through crimson nostrils by long-enduring 
lungs. 

She swayed in the saddle, and all grew dark before 
her. But through the mists of failing senses she heard 
a voice low in her ear : 


202 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ Thank God, you're safe ! What a feat ! What- 
ever made you attempt it ? ” 

What she answered, or if she answered at all, Lyle 
never knew. Derrick leaped from his hunter, and was 
by her side just in time to catch her nerveless figure as 
she fell forward. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 


Lyle found herself resting against a scarlet coat, in 
a quiet field. The two horses were quietly cropping 
grass a few yards away. For some moments she could 
remember nothing. Then it all rushed back — that un- 
intentional run with the hounds, the last leap, the 
warning voice. 

She sat up dazed and giddy. Her brow was wet ; 
so were her lips and the front of her habit. A silver 
hunting flask lay beside her on the grass. She met 
the anxious eyes of Derrick Mallory, and staggered to 
her feet one crimson glow of shame. 

“ What in Heaven’s name possessed you to do such 
a mad thing ? ” he asked sternly. “ It’s a miracle you 
weren’t killed. Xot a woman in the whole field could 
take that leap. It’s just about as much as a big jumper 
like Blackskin there can do. And I thought you never 
hunted.” 

She laughed hysterically. 

“ I didn’t come here of my own will. . . . My horse 
started with the others, and I simply could not stop 
him.” 

“You were wise not to try.” 

His eyes turned from her face to the stiff-fence and 
the wide ditch beyond. Then a chill, embarrassed 
silence fell upon them both. 


203 


204 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ You’re losing your run,” she said presently. 
“ Pray go on. I’m all right now ; I can go home.” 

“ Have you any idea where you are ? ” 

She glanced round. “Ho, but I can ask.” 

“ I shall put you on the road,” he said coldly. “ I 
can’t overtake them now, and, however unpleasant my 
company may be, I can’t allow you to go all those miles 
by yourself. Besides, you can’t cross-country now, and 
you’re quite ten miles from home.” 

She made no remonstrance. Her will seemed sud- 
denly weak, like her body. She was even conscious of 
a little thrill of pleasure at the masterful tone ; con- 
scious, too, that for one half-hour to have him near 
her, hear his voice, meet his eyes, was worth more than 
that perilous gallop and its risky termination. 

“ We’d better breathe the horses a bit,” he continued. 

He stooped for his flask, and she suddenly became 
conscious that her bodice was open at the throat, that 
she was hatless, and her hair streaming about her. 
With a hot, painful blush she begun to twist up the 
shining coils. 

He studiously averted his eyes, but when the task 
was completed he handed her her hat. 

“ It fell off at that last jump,” he said. 

She fastened the elastic. Her hand shook. She felt 
weak and strange. 

“ May I offer you some more brandy ?” asked Der- 
rick. “ I could not get more than a drop down your 
throat when I tried, and you’re awfully shaken.” 

She tried to say “No,” but it was a feeble attempt, 
and ended by her seating herself once more on thegrass. 
He poured out some into the little cup, and handed it 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 205 

to her. She took it meekly, and the faintness passed 

off. 

“ Rest there awhile,” he said, more gently than he 
had yet spoken. “ Fll go and catch the horses.” 

When she had rested and recovered, he mounted her 
on Meteor, and opened a gate in the field that led into 
a long, winding lane. It was so narrow that the horses 
could scarcely walk abreast, but had it been twice as 
narrow or twice as long, Lyle felt she would not have 
uttered a complaint. 

They were very silent. 

Her thoughts flitted to and fro — sometimes sad, 
sometimes resentful, but quite unable to regain that 
standpoint of hurt and angered feeling which had 
prompted her dismissal of an unw*orthy suitor. She 
wondered vaguely if he had suffered during this past 
week — if to him had fallen sleepless nights, long, hateful 
hours ; dreariness, hopeless unrest. 

The silence was becoming embarrassing. Their 
thoughts trenched on a subject too difficult for speech, 
and every furtive glance meant danger. She tried to 
battle against this foolish consciousness. She had no 
wish to wear her heart-break openly, and yet there 
seemed no way of pretending forgetfulness of what had 
been. 

Pride came to her aid. She spoke of her hunting 
adventure as lightly as if it had been a morning gallop ; 
but he checked the lightness sternly. 

“ I didn’t know it was you till I overtook you,” he 
said, “ And when I looked at your horse and thought 
of what he had done, and what lay before him, I never 
expected to see you alive. Don’t make a jest of it ” 


206 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

— his voice shook slightly — “ I thought I had faced 
everything that could mean feeling, hut that moment 
showed me — I had not.” 

Their eyes met. It would have been hard to say 
which face was the whiter of the two. Her heart 
whispered — “ He has not forgotten ” — with a sense of 
triumph, and then of shame at that triumph. 

He went on relentlessly. “You dealt me a facer, 
Lyle, and I went from you wounded to the core of my 
heart ; hut in sight of that danger 1 forgot all, even 
the pride of manhood. I would have died a thousand 
deaths to save you the risk of that one moment.” 

The falter in his voice set every pulse thrilling as 
she had never thought they could thrill again. But 
she kept silence. Her voice might be traitor to dig- 
nity, and that thrill break its coldness. 

“ I never hoped to see you again, or to speak to you,” 
he went on in low, nervous tones. “ But you’ve 
haunted every hour of my life, if that is any satisfaction 
to you. I suppose you were right in your judgment, 
but women ought to be merciful. Though scores of 
lovers sigh for you, Lyle, you’ll never win a truer love 
than that you’ve thrown away in a moment of pique 
and pride.” 

“ I wanted truth,” she said. “ I held nothing back 
from you.” 

“You should have had it, child; but how could I 
explain, with love for you hot on my lips ? I had room 
for no other word or memory.” 

“ It is too late to speak of that now.” 

‘‘ I know. But I leave here to-morrow. In a week 
I sail for India. You need not grudge me one hour 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 207 

whose memory can go with me in my loneliness. It 
will be loneliness indeed, Lyle — and only a week ago I 
thought it would all be so different.” 

“ To-morrow ? ” she echoed faintly, and some shadow 
of that loneliness seemed to fall over herself. 

“Yes. I can’t stay here. It is martyrdom. Women 
can sit and brood over troubles. It is one of their lux- 
uries of sentiment. But a man can’t. It would drive 
him mad or desperate, especially when the trouble is of 

his own bringing. This last week But why talk 

of it ? It can’t alter anything, and you — wouldn’t 
care.” 

She bent her head over Meteor’s arching neck. Not 
care ! Oh, if only she didn’t ! ” 

“ I’m not sorry,” he went on presently, “for this 
chance. I left you with hot anger in my heart. I had 
no right, perhaps, to be offended, but we Irish are not 
responsible for our temperaments, and I felt stung and 
hurt. I think we hardly knew how angry we were, 
Lyle. But now after this meeting I’ll go away at 
peace with you and wishing you happiness and better 
luck than I could ever have brought you. I wonder 
whether I am asking too much, but I’d give ten years 
of my life to hear you say, * Derrick, I forgive you.’” 

He saw her lip quiver, and the pallor of her face 
frightened him. Was it possible she did love him, 
only pride stood between them, an invincible barrier ? 

“Don’t say it out of pity,” he said hoarsely. “You 
misjudged me once. I don’t wish you to do it again. 
Say it because you mean it ; because you are the same 
Lyle who came to my arms with such sweet graciousness 
and made me her slave forever ; because you are the 


2 o 8 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

only woman I ever really loved ; because if you could 
see my heart you would know how foolish was your 
causeless jealousy ; because there you are rooted, sover- 
eign and queen of all that's left for life, filling it with 
memories that you can’t alter and I can’t prevent ! 
Say it for these reasons or — keep silence.” 

She thought he must hear her heart’s loud throbs, 
but they were not all of pain or pride in that moment. 
Something of exultation mingled with them. 

She had recognized her power. 

She could make him plead and suffer, and remem- 
ber. That other woman could scarcely rival her now. 

“ You don’t speak,” he said again. “ Very well ; I 
won’t ask for a word you don’t mean, but I never 
dreamed you were so hard, Lyle.” 

“ I am not hard,” she said proudly, “ only to for- 
give isn’t — possible. You have laid a burden on my 
heart that all the years to come will scarcely lighten. 
All men will seem false to me when I remember you.” 

“If you had learned the lessons of life,” he said, 
“ you would not call my actions by such a harsh name. 
The drifting fancies of a man do not affect his heart. 
The one woman he loves is the only loadstone that can 
really draw him.” 

Lyle turned her white face away to hide the gather- 
ing tears. She knew she forgave him, but it was hard 
to say it. Her heart was weak as water to his plead- 
ing. She felt its power had in no way relaxed. And 
now it was too late. Part they must, there was no 
help for it. It was easier to keep up the pretence of 
coldness and of pride than yield and break down, and 
suffer again all that she had suffered. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 209 

Her calmness was so like indifference that he 
believed it less a mask than a reality. As the lane 
widened he drew his horse aside, and let her ride on in 
front of him. 

When they reached the open road, she stopped. “ I 
know the way now, and I need not trouble you to come 
any further.” 

“ Your road is mine also,” he said curtly. “ I shall 
keep you in sight, unless you absolutely forbid it.” 

“ I could scarcely do that,” she said quietly, “if our 
ways are the same.” 

“ For a little while. For the last time, Lyle.” 

She made no answer, but he saw her lids droop, and 
caught the sudden quiver of her lips. 

“ It is too late for happiness,” he said ; “ but don’t 
let us part in anger. Life after to-day will be hard 
enough without that added to it.” 

So they rode on side by side, speaking now and then 
in toneless, even voices, yet making no haste to shorten 
the distance that lay between them and a last “ good- 
by.” 

It seemed to Lyle that she must have dreamed of those 
other impassioned farewells as she stole a look at the 
stern coldness of his face. Had his hand ever sought 
hers tenderly, his eyes claimed look for look with a 
lover’s pleading ; his lips 

She drew herself up suddenly. Her thoughts must 
not stray over ground so dangerous. All that was over 
forever. They were drawing near to the gulf of 
silence and separation that no love might bridge with 
hope. 

They drew rein involuntarily at the cross-roads, 

i4 


2io The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

Hero there was no longer excuse for his escort. She 
was within two minutes of her own gates. 

The tired horses drooped their heads. She saw him 
shift the hunting crop into his left hand, leaving the 
right free. A spasm of heart-sickness shook the forced 
composure from her face and bearing. She was after 
all only a girl, and life's lessons are bitter. 

“ Good-by," he said, under his breath. 

A little gasping sob caught hers. 

“ Good-by, Derrick." 

“ Oh ! Lyle, Lyle," he cried passionately, “you do 
care — you can't go back on what has been. Your 
heartache answers mine, though it can't be as hard to 
bear. Are you sorry it has ended — like this ? " 

“ Yes," she said sadly. “ Nothing will ever seem 
quite the same. One can't give love and take it back 
at will." 

“ That's true enough," he said moodily. “ It's but 
a poor starved future I have to face. I think some- 
times I shall never see this country again." 

“At least," she said, “ you will live — not stagnate." 

He laughed somewhat bitterly. 

“ If it's life to feel one is minus a limb, dead to peace 
and content, haunted by a memory that fills one's days 
and dreams ! That's about what it means to me. But 
I’ll make no more moan over it. You have acted as 
you thought best. Even had it been otherwise, had I 
been the faultless being you desired, we should never 
have broken down your father’s opposition. — Best so ! " 

He held out his hand. It was ungloved. Some im- 
pulse prompted her to draw the white gauntlet from 
her own. Palm touched palm, close pressed and loth 


211 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

to part. Suddenly he raised the warm white wrist to 
his lips and kissed it with lingering sadness. Then he 
released it, looking all his soul into her tear-filled eyes. 
“ God bless you — always,” he whispered. 

The hand fell numb and loose to her side. She saw 
him wrench the rein, turn. — The lonely road was not 
more desolate than her heart as she realized he had 
gone from out her life forever. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 


Lyle was in her room and changing her habit when 
she suddenly thought of Nora. She called her name, 
but there was no answer. She threw on a dressing- 
gown, and opened the communicating door between the 
two rooms. Nora’s was empty. 

“ I wonder what has detained her ? Surely her 
horse didn’t bolt also,” she thought as she returned 
and finished her dressing. She felt sick and bruised 
and weary, but she knew it would be better to put in 
an appearance at the luncheon table than to let her 
father hear a garbled version of her hunting adven- 
ture. There was no need to mention Derrick Mallory’s 
name. 

As soon as Lyle was dressed she rang her bell and in- 
quired of Molly whether Miss Callaghan had returned. 
The answer was “ No ’’—when separated from the 
usual formula of circumlocution indispensable to all 
Irish replies. Lyle began to feel alarmed. 

She went down-stairs and related her story. Sir An- 
thony was full of consternation. Nora’s absence in- 
creased his uneasiness, and he was full of self-blame 
for a suggestion that had been so unexpectedly dis- 
astrous. 

“ You ought to have had the groom,” he said. 

“ My dear dad, twenty grooms could not have pre- 
vented Meteor’s bolt,” she answered. 

212 


213 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“Where was Nora when you last saw her ?” 

“Talking to Jasper Standish.” 

“Oh! then she’s all right. He would be sure to 
look after her.” 

“ You seem to have great faith in Mr. Standish ? ” 

“ Why should I not ? I’ve never had any reason to 
suspect his probity.” 

Lyle was silent. Her head was aching violently after 
the excitement of the morning. Her heart kept it 
company. Conversation was an effort. 

Luncheon was over, but still came no signs of Nora. 
Sir Anthony at last despatched a groom to see if he 
could ascertain what had delayed her. Lyle went to 
her own room to lie down. She felt utterly prostrate ; 
the pain in her head was so intense that every move- 
ment was agony. 

It seemed as if hours passed. Everything was vague 
and dim, bounded only by heart misery. Then a soft 
tap at the door roused her. She heard Nora’s voice 
speaking. 

“ Lyle, I’ve come back. I’m all right. Your father 
said you were anxious.” 

“ Come in,” she answered feebly. 

The girl obeyed the summons. She was still in her 
habit, but even in that dim room the radiance and 
glory of her face struck Lyle with sudden wonder. 

“ How happy you look ! ” she said enviously. 

“ Perhaps I am. But never mind me. What s this 
about yourself ? Did Meteor really go after the 
hounds ?” 

“ Yes — whether I would or no.” 

“You weren’t thrown, Lyle, or hurt ?” 

394 


214 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“No — very nearly, though. He took that big jump 
by Aylmer’s Field. I had no idea what it was like till 
I was over. Then he had had about enough.” 

“It’s a mercy you weren’t thrown,” exclaimed Nora. 
“ But why are you lying down ? ” 

“ I have a racking headache.” 

“Then I won’t talk to you. Just lie quietly there 
till tea-time. Shall I order it up in my room ?” 

“Do, dear. Then I can sit there in my dressing- 
gown.” 

She sank down again amongst the pillows, and Nora 
withdrew. Lyle fell into a heavy sleep, or stupor, the 
result of pain and fatigue, and when she awoke the 
room was dusk. Through the open door she caught 
the gleam of firelight and lamplight, and rising from 
the bed she joined Nora. 

“ The tea is not made ; I was waiting for you. I 
did not like to disturb you. By the way, Lyle, do you 
known where Jane is ? Molly says no one has seen her 
since this morning.” 

“ How strange ! Perhaps she went into the town to 
order things.” 

“ It doesn’t take six hours to do that.” 

“ No. It is rather— odd.” 

“Well, at any rate, she can’t be on a runaway 
horse,” said Nora, laughing. “ Molly says she was 
carrying a small bag ; but she told no one where she 
was going.” 

“ Oh, she’s all right. She will be home before long,” 
said Lyle. “ Now what were your adventures this 
morning ? They seem to have improved your spirits.” 

“I? Oh ! I am so much happier, Lyle. I was 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 215 

wrong about — about what I thought and said of Jasper 
and — you. He has not really changed.” 

Lyle looked at the sweet, happy face, and her heart 
sank. 

“ I wish he had,” she said to herself, but she kept 
silence. Nora’s cheeks were glowing. Hope’s star- 
shine filled the violet of her eyes. 

“ I don’t know how I could have been so stupid,” she 
went on — too happy for discouragement. “ But it’s 
all right now; I shall never distrust him again.” 

“ Are you so sure ?” asked Lyle, putting down her 
cup, and looking with sad wonder at the girl’s changed 
face. 

4 4 Yes.” 

That one simple affirmative meant everything. 

“ Answer me truly, Nora ; are you going to marry 
Jasper Standish ? ” 

“Not yet. . . . Not for a long time. When he has 
a better position and a little more money ” 

“ He has asked you ? ” 

“ He conveyed as much as hints can convey. Oh ! 
Lyle, I wish I was rich like you. I would give him 
everything I had in the world.” 

“You can better test his worth without riches, 
Nora.” 

“ I don’t wish to test it. I am quite content to be- 
lieve in it. It distresses me, Lyle, that you are so 
prejudiced. You only. Sir Anthony likes him, so 
does every one in the county. I cannot understand 
why you don’t.” 

“ Well, my darling, if you vouch so strongly for his 
merits, I must try and conquer that prejudice. It 


216 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

need not make you unhappy. It is my own misfortune 
that I don’t believe in men.” 

“ Or in love ? ” 

“ No— it is a false thing. It means — too much — or 
too little.” 

“ That is to say, you have found it disappointing ? ” 

“ Yes,” she said quietly. 

“ I was afraid of it,” said Nora gently. “ But I did 
not like to ask. Derrick is going back to India — I 
heard so to-day.” 

“ He told me himself.” 

“ But you never spoke to him ; at least, not when I 
was there.” 

“ I did not wish to speak to him. It was all owing 
to that hunting freak of Meteor’s.” 

She related the incident briefly. Nora gave it as- 
tonished attention. 

“ Poor fellow ! ” she said at last. “ I think you are 
rather hard on him, Lyle. We must take men as they 
are — not heroes or gods, but ordinary flesh and blood, 
made up of good and bad just like ourselves. Why 
should one human being expect perfection of an- 
other ? ” 

“ Because it is best to look for the highest, and 
natural to want it in one we love.” 

Nora was silent. Well enough she knew that her 
ideal was very far from being the highest — that he fell 
miles below Lyle Orcheton’s standard of manly perfec- 
tion ; but she asked for nothing better than what he 
was, or seemed. 

She poured out some more tea, and drank it silently. 

“Do you know,” she said at last, “Mrs. O’Neil has 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 217 

asked me to stay with her for a week or two. She says 
it is so lonely — and will be more so when her nephew 
leaves.” 

Lyle started. “ Are you going ? ” 

“ If you don’t mind,” said Nora. “ I would like to 
stay there for a week. She is such an old friend, and 
so kind.” 

“ Dearest, you must do exactly as you please 
here, or I shall be most unhappy. And indeed I’m 
not very lively company for you, or any one, just 
now.” 

“ Oh, Lyle, it’s not that. You and I are not at the 
stage of friendship when we need to entertain each 
other. But she has been ill and dull and moped, and 
begged me so hard ” 

“ When do you go ? ” 

“ To-morrow, if you are sure you won’t mind being 
left alone for a little while. We can still see each 
other nearly every day.” 

“ Yes, of course. And I must finish my room, and 
take up my music again. It’s a long time since I 
practised.” 

“ Indeed it is. You’ve been neglecting everything 
of late. —Lyle !” 

“ What is it ?” 

“ I’ve just remembered. We never found that secret 
staircase, did we ? ” 

“ No-o,” said Lyle faintly. 

She thought of the day when its history had been 
discussed. How much had happened since ! 

“ Would you like to find it ?” continued Nora. 

Lyle shook her h«ad. “No. I have lost all in- 


218 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

terest in it. Have you ever thought how strangely my 
presentiment about that room came true, Nora ? The 
very first day I was arranging it sorrow overtook me, 
as I felt it would— and ever since, trouble has followed 
trouble.” 

“ You have never been well or happy, you mean ? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ But, Lyle, it may not end with this. You have 
said very little to me, but I suppose it is your father’s 
opposition that is the barrier ? ” 

“ One of them. There is a worse — and I can’t speak 
of it.” 

“ I think I know — another woman, is it not ? ” 

“ It is common gossip, no doubt,” said Lyle bitterly. 
“ I might have expected it.” 

“ But are you quite sure ? If it weren’t true ” 

“ It is true. He could not deny it.” 

u It is very hard. I do not think you, of all people, 
deserve it. But perhaps you will not always care 
like this. There are other men worthier, more 
suitable.” 

“ Oh ! Nora, Nora, f with a little hoard of maxims 
preaching down,’ a — broken heart, shall we say ? 
Only mine is not broken. Hurt and sore, I grant, but 
it will recover. It must be possible to forget in time if 
one tries very hard.” 

“ Yes ; if we really try.” 

“ I shall try — and succeed. In a year it will be all 
quite different.” 

“ A year ?” Nora shook her head somewhat sadly. 
“ Not if I know anything of you, Lyle.” 

“ Twelve long months. Fifty-two weeks. Oh ! a 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 219 

great deal can be conquered in that time. I shall try, 
as I said.” 

She bent down and held her hands towards the fire, 
as if suddenly cold. Her eyes fell on the wrist Derrick 
had kissed. The blue veins showed through the white 
skin where his lips had lingered. 

“ And it all meant nothing ! ” she cried suddenly. 
“Nothing — the faith, the hope, the waiting — those 
long, anxious weeks ! Nothing ! ” 

From the standpoint of recovered hope, Nora uttered 
cheering prophecies. They fell on heedless ears. They 
seemed to belong to a time Lyle wanted to forget. 
To-morrow he would be gone out of her world, her 
life. How long before he would be out of her heart 
also ! 

She sank back in her chair in a somewhat wearied 
attitude. Nora looked at her with soft compassion. 

“If I were you,” she said, “I would not come down 
to dinner to-night. You look as white as a ghost, 
and your eyes tell you are in pain. Isn’t your head 
better ? ” 

“ A little. It is at the dull stage of aching. I really 
think I will take your advice. Tell dad I have a split- 
ting headache after this morning’s escapade.” 

“ I’ll send you up some dinner.” 

“ I couldn’t touch it.” 

“ Some soup ? ” pleaded Nora. “ It’s all nonsense 
giving way like this. You’ll be ill ; and what good 
will that do to any one ! ” 

“ Very well,” said Lyle, “ you don’t mind my taking 
possession of your room in this fashion ? ” 

“Mind ! ” Nora laughed and pulled the big chintz- 


220 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

covered Chesterfield over near the fire. “ Just you lie 
there and don’t move, while I dress. And after dinner 
I’ll come up and sit with you. Oh ! by the bye, I 
must ask Jane to do my packing.” 

“ And I’ll lie here and watch it. You’d better dress, 
dear. It only wants half an hour of dinner time.” 

She lay there amidst the soft cushions, wearied and 
spent. The acute stage of mental and physical suffer- 
ing had been reached. It was the hour of the ebbtide, 
and the strain and stress relaxed. Her eyes closed. 
Nora thought she slept, but it was not sleep — only ex- 
haustion. 

Molly brought up soup and wine, and she took both, 
and felt the better for them. 

The girl hovered round the room as if anxious and 
yet reluctant to speak. At last she burst out : “ Av 
ye plaze, miss, I think I ought to tell you that Mrs. 
Grapnell has been away wid herself the whole ay this 
day, an’ no wurrd to inyone ; an’ that’s not all, miss. 
There’s been a policeman watching the house since an 
hour before dark, an’ not five minutes ago Mister Stan- 
dish, the inspector, rode over an’ asked to see the 
master, an’ the two av thim are in the study. It was 
bizness av the greatest importance he said, an’ the 
master left his dinner an’ wint to him ; an’ axin’ yer 
pardon, miss, I’m afraid something has happened, for 
J twas mighty grave and stern he looked. And whin 
he passed into the study — Mister Standish, I mane — 
I happened to be passin’ by the door, an’ I heard him 
whisper to the man outside. Sure, Miss Lyle, as I’m 
a livin’ sowl this minnit ’twas f handcuffs ’ was the 
wurrd ! ” 


CHAPTER XXV. 


Startled and amazed, Lyle sat up and looked at 
the girl. At the same moment the door opened, and 
Sir Anthony entered. He hade Molly leave the room, 
and shut the door orn her reluctant exit. 

“ Lyle, my dear,” he then said, “ something extraor- 
dinary has happened. Mr. Standish has come here to 
arrest Jane Grapnell on suspicion of the murder of 
Nora’s father.” 

Lyle gazed at him in wide-eyed incredulity. 

“ Arrest Jane ! What an idea ! Why, she was 
devoted to Mr. Callaghan.” 

“ She seemed so ; but I am bound to tell you, my 
dear, this woman has a very strange history. I’ve only 
heard a small portion, but that’s queer enough. It 
appears that while at Dr. Dan’s, and also during the 
short time she has been here, she was in the habit of 

going out at night — it is supposed to meet Why, 

Lyle, what’s the matter ?” 

For Lyle had given a sudden start. She remem- 
bered that mysterious figure crossing the park, and the 
after-discovery that it had been none of the younger 
servants. 

“ I — I can’t believe it,” she said. “ Jane suspected 
of murder — impossible ! ” 


221 


222 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ Standish makes out a very strong case. It is a 
horrible thing to happen here. Have you any idea 
where she is, by the way ? ” 

Lyle grew very pale. She thought of Jane’s strange 
absence all day — unasked, unexplained. Yet faith 
clung to the poor hunted creature. 

“ She went into the town, and has not yet returned/’ 
she answered. “ Where — where is Mr. Standish ? ” 

“ In my study. The house has been watched all 
day.” 

She rose unsteadily. Her temples throbbed violently 
at the movement. 

“I should like to see him,” she said. “ I will come 
down. Remember, father, Jane is not a mere servant. 
Nora and I have known her from our schooldays. I 
can’t believe she could have done such a thing. It is 
a ridiculous charge. I should say it could not hold 
ground — that it was made to screen some one else.” 

“That is an absurd and unreasonable idea,” said Sir 
Anthony sternly. “ You women are so illogical.” 

“ It may be illogical,” said Lyle ; “ it is also intui- 
tion. I would stake my life on Jane’s honor and 
Jane’s innocence.” 

“ There can be no use in your seeing Mr. Standish,” 
continued her father. “ I only came up to ask if you 
could give us any information as to Jane’s where- 
abouts ? ” 

“ I cannot.” Her lips closed firmly. “ And I would 
not if I could,” she said in her heart. 

“Very well, 1 will tell him.” 

He turned away, when the door suddenly burst open, 
and Nora entered in a whirl of excitement. “ Lyle !” 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 223 

she cried. “ Oh ! Sir Anthony, surely it’s not true! 
It’s like a wild dream. Jane, my faithful old Jane, 
accused of murdering my father ? Impossible ! ” 

She burst into a flood of tears. Her whole frame 
was shaking. 

“ Hush ! my child, hush ! ” said Sir Anthony kindly. 
“ After all, accusation and conviction are widely dif- 
ferent things.” 

“ Oh ! but the shame — the disgrace ! ” sobbed Nora 
wildly. “ They will cling to her always. And she 
has never been liked, never been friendly with the 
people here, and not one will have a good word for 
her ! Oh ! surely, surely this can be stopped. I can’t 
bear it. It is too horrible ! ” 

Sir Anthony looked deeply distressed. It was not 
the first time that he had found himself wishing he 
had never come to Ireland. Nothing but disaster and 
ill-luck had befallen him since he had bought the Her- 
mitage. 

“ Try to calm her, Lyle,” he said. “ I must go 
down to Standish. This affair cannot rest, and Jane’s 
flight makes it more suspicious.” 

He hurried from the room. Nora fell weeping into 
Lyle’s arms. This sudden shock had brought back all 
the horror of that terrible time when she had faced her 
first grief. Everything else was forgotten. The two 
girls cried, discussed, and argued, while Sir Anthony 
and Jasper Standish were below, interviewing the other 
servants and trying to gain additional evidence as to 
the cause of Jane’s hurried departure. 

Molly’s story of red-haired Mickey’s visit, and the 
letter, seemed to disconcert the Inspector visibly. 


224 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“How did she come to know him ? Has he been 
here before ?” he inquired. 

“No, sir.” answered the girl. 

“ But she seemed to know him,” added Honora 
Mooney. 

Jasper dismissed them and shut up his note-book. 

“ The affair’s going to give us some trouble,” he said 
to Sir Anthony. “ That boy Doolan is a half-witted, 
good-for-nothing vagabond. The fact of his knowing 
this woman is not to her credit.” 

“ I wonder what was in that letter ? ” said Sir An- 
thony thoughtfully. 

“With your permission I will make a search of her 
room,” continued Jasper. “There may be evidence 
to be found there.” 

“ Shall I accompany you ? ” 

“ No, thank you, I would rather go by myself. But 
I’ll take my man as witness. 

Sir Anthony returned to the deserted dining-room. 
All appetite for dinner had vanished. What a miser- 
able New Year’s day it had been ! He bade Woodman 
give him some wine and remove the dishes, and sat on 
there alone and dispirited awaiting Jasper’s return. 

One look at the Inspector’s face showed him there 
had been more discoveries. 

“ You have found something ? ” he questioned 
anxiously. 

“I am sorry to say so, Sir Anthony.” 

He opened his hand. In it glittered a small gold 
coin. “ Look at that,” he said. 

Sir Anthony fixed his glasses and stared hard at the 
money. “ A sovereign ! ” he said. 


225 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ Yes ; but do you see that mark on it ? ” 

Jasper pointed to a tiny mark scratched on the sur- 
face. 

“ It looks like a letter,” said Sir Anthony. 

“ It is a letter — the letter ‘ D.’ I ascertained from 
Donovan, before he went out to America, that ten of 
the gold pieces he paid into the bank that day of the 
murder were marked with his initial. He had saved 
them up as profit from some bargain, and scratched 
the letter “ D ” on them to celebrate his good luck. 
He put them in with the other money. Sir Anthony, 
this was found in a corner of one of the drawers in the 
chest in Jane Grapnell’s room. It may have escaped 
from her purse and rolled there ; probably it did. In 
her hurried flight she took all the money she had, but 
this piece lay between the paper and the wood of the 
drawer. It is one of the ten marked pieces paid into 
the bank by Donovan.” 

“ G ood God ! You don’t say so ! ” 

“ I do. I must. The case looked black enough 
before. It looks worse now. I must issue a warrant 
for the arrest of this woman, and have it telegraphed 
all over the kingdom. But she has had a good start. 
She may be on the way to America, — California, — 
anywhere !” 

“ Yes, of course,” faltered Sir Anthony. 

“Well, in any case, I needn’t take up any more of 
your time. I’ve locked up everything in her room and 
taken the key. You will see no one goes there.” 

“ Of course. It’s an awful thing, though, Standish 
— an awful thing to have happened here, just as I 
thought we were comfortably settled.” 
i5 


22 6 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ It is awful ; but it can’t be helped.” 

“ It’s a great shock to poor Nora. She was so at- 
tached to Jane. Upon my soul, I can’t credit her 
guilt. It looks so impossible.” 

“If crimes didn’t look like that, very few would be 
brought home to the real culprits. The more impos- 
sible, the greater the likelihood. That is the ground 
I have gone upon.” 

“And all that dreadful business will be raked up 
again. And I suppose you’ll be wanting me to give 
evidence ? ” 

“Indeed I will.” 

Sir Anthony’s brow clouded. “ I wish to Heaven,” 
he said, in a low, troubled voice, “ that I’d never come 
to this country. Some evil fate has been dodging my 
steps ever since. There’s always some trouble or un- 
pleasantness, and I so hoped for peace at last. Lyle 
is ill and altered, Nora Callaghan’s life is shadowed by 
this tragedy, and I myself am brought into it all by 
the fact of unconsciously harboring the suspected per- 
son under my roof.” 

“It is hard,” said Jasper Standish sympathetically ; 
“ but justice must be done, Sir Anthony, and it doesn’t 
stand aside because of discomfort to others ! ” 

He left then, and Sir Anthony went up-stairs to talk 
the matter over with Nora and his daughter. 

* sH sH sj« 

A sense of gloom and ever-deepening horror brooded 
over the Hermitage. 

Nora had gone to Mrs. O’Neil’s, and Lyle was left 
much alone. All the delight and hope with which she 
had looked forward to settling in Ireland had 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 227 

vanished. These months seemed like years added to 
her life. She fulfilled her duties mechanically, taking 
up the housekeeping herself, for she had no desire to 
replace poor Jane. No trace of her had been found. 
How she had accomplished that flight so secretly and 
hastily was a mystery. Suspicion looked black against 
her, and yet Lyle’s faith never wavered, even when 
Nora’s was shaken. 

Derrick had left on the second, as he had said. She 
knew it by receiving a small packet on that morning, 
containing a spray of shamrock and the one word 
“ Farewell.” 

She locked them away in a tray of her jewel case, 
the only mementoes of her brief love dream. 

Brief indeed it had been, but with a resolution and 
submission that had little of girlhood left, she put it 
from her into that sad vault that meant the past. 

“ There is one comfort,” she told herself, “ I shall 
never suffer like this again. I could not. They say a 
first grief is always the hardest to bear. After that 
shock of disillusion, it is no longer an agony to think 
of the seas between us. The fear of meeting him is at 
least over. To wake up in the morning and know he 
is gone is almost consolation.” 

But the consolation was a very poor one. It did not 
bring the old light to her eye, the joy to her face. It 
could not restore the ringing gladness to voice and 
laugh. Sorrow had taken its heavy toll. The life of 
girlhood was gone. She had faced the ignominy of 
self-deception. It seemed to her that the shame of it 
had turned her heart to stone. 

Yet she did battle bravely, and threw herself into 


228 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

active life as far as was possible. Brooding and tears 
could never restore that fallen idol to its pedestal. 
When she had recognized that fact, she was more 
unhappy but less intolerant. 

Nora had been gone about a fortnight when one night 
she went up to her room a little earlier than usual. 
Her father was busy over some literary work, and 
usually spent the evenings in his study. 

The moon was flooding the pretty bedchamber with 
radiance. A small wood fire burned in the grate, for 
the rooms at the Hermitage were always more or less 
chilly. Lyle looked out on the park, and saw the dis- 
tant river lying like a silver mirror between its dark 
banks, the belt of laurels and holly, the shadows of the 
leafless elms upon the grass. 

As she stood at the window there flashed back to her 
mind the memory of that night when she had seen that 
flitting figure pass under the shadows of those same 
trees. 

Had. it been Jane ? And whom had she gone to 
meet ? The dreadful story came back to her. She 
traced it step by step. It had come to a full stop now. 
Jasper Standish had failed to discover his desired vic- 
tim. Nothing on earth could shake Lyle’s belief that 
Jane was a victim, destined to be the scapegoat of 
another’s misdeeds, until such time of her innocence or 
that other’s guilt should be proved. 

To-night she could not get away from her memories 
of this strange, sad, reserved woman ; unpopular be- 
cause of that sadness, unloved because of that reserve. 
That some great sorrow burdened her life Lyle knew_ 
though of its nature she was entirely ignorant. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 229 

She turned away from the window at last and let the 
curtains fall. 

The fire leaped suddenly up, and one ray of light 
shone on a chintz-covered dress ottoman standing at 
the foot of the bed. It held Lyle’s evening dresses, 
and as her eye followed unthinkingly the flash of light, 
she noticed that a fragment of lace was hanging out 
between the lid and the floor. It was an unimportant 
matter, so unimportant that unless Lyle had been in- 
nately tidy of habit she would not have troubled her 
head about it. As it was, she lit the candles on the 
mantel-shelf, and then, going over to the box, lifted the 
lid to put the lace back in its place. 

It had caught in the latch of the ottoman. But for 
that fact Lyle would not have knelt down and pushed 
back the lid. So do trifles make up histories. 

Kneeling there, she looked at the dress lying on the 
top. She remembered it was the very dress she was to 
have worn at Mrs. O’Neil’s party. She remembered 
also that Jane Grapnell had been working on it the 
night of Mr. Callaghan’s murder. The whole of the 
events of that night flashed back to her. How much 
had come and gone and happened since that dress had 
been laid aside, forgotten in the horrors of after events ! 

She had hoped Derrick would have returned for that 
party. She had been secretly anxious that the gown 
should be very pretty and very becoming. Now the 
pearly gleam of satin and lace came as an added shock 
in an unexpected moment. She felt the scorch of tears 
in her eyes as she laid the strip of lace back in its 
place. There was the needle and cotton, just as Jane 
had left them. 


230 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

She drew the needle out. 

As she did so, something rustled and cracked. Lyle 
felt among the filmy folds of lace and satin, and drew 
out a sheet of ruled paper. It was the sort of paper 
used for exercise books. She looked at it curiously. 
It was folded like a square envelope, and addressed to 
herself. In surprise she opened it, and saw it was 
covered with fine, small writing. 

Rising hastily, she went over to the light and began 
to read it. 


CHAPTER XXVI.' 


This is what Lyle read : 

“ Dear Miss Lyle, — 

U I am writing this in great distress and in great 
terror. I cannot explain more. I have a powerful 
enemy, and he is dogging my steps and watching my 
actions. The time is not yet ripe, or I could turn the 
tables on him ; but the day will come, and until it 
comes I throw myself on your mercy. Do not, I pray 
of you, believe what is said of me, and will be said of 
me when it is known I am gone. For go I must. If I 
stay here, he will deprive me of freedom, and without 
freedom I cannot act. It may be months, it may be 
less, before I can bring my proofs to bear against this 
enemy. In those months what may not happen ! That 
is my dread ; that is why at all risks I write to you. 

“ At the bottom of this dress box of yours I have 
placed a sealed packet. I dared not leave it in my own 
room for fear it should be searched. May I beseech 
you to keep this safe until I claim it, unless one thing 
should happen. That one thing which I so greatly fear 
and can so weakly guard against, is the event of Jasper 
Standish proposing to, or marrying, Miss Nora. If such 
a thing should happen, or appear likely to happen, 
you must open the packet. I must risk everything, 
even death, to save her. I know I can trust you. 

231 


232 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ My time is short ; I have to leave here within an 
hour. I am going to put this letter in your dressing- 
table drawer, where you will be sure to find it. I 
shall ” 

The letter broke off. There was no signature, no 
date, and it had not been sealed, not even placed in an 
envelope. Lyle gazed at it, white and trembling. It 
was as if some one had suddenly risen from the dead 
and confronted her. The writing looked like Jane 
Grapnell’s, though somewhat smaller and more cramped 
than her usual caligraphy in account books and orders. 

The letter was unfinished. Something must have 
happened to prevent her carrying out her intention, 
Lyle could only suppose that some hidden interruption 
had prevented her sealing it ; that, afraid to put it 
open in the dressing-table drawer, she had slipped it 
into this box, knowing that the moment Lyle went 
there for any of her evening dresses she would find it. 

But what was that about a packet ? About Nora 
and Jasper Standish ? Again she perused the small, 
cramped writing. A thrill of horror ran through her. 
Whatever the woman meant had been realized. Nora 
was ostensibly engaged to this man, who was hounding 
down a defenseless woman — this man whom she had 
always distrusted, who had proved himself fickle and 
untrue ! 

Nora and Jasper Standish ! What could it mean ? 
Not that he — Jasper — had been concerned in the 

crime ! — that to save himself Her brain reeled at 

the awfulness of the thought. No, it could not be. 
He was bad, unprincipled, but' surely no fiend out of 
hell itself could have conceived outrage so diabolical. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. . 233 

She sank into a chair, the letter clenched in her 
trembling fingers. 

What must be done ? Keep Jane's secret, yet save 
Nora? It seemed impossible. Only too well she knew 
the strength of the girl’s infatuation. Nothing short 
of absolute invincible proof would convince her that 
this man was unworthy, and worse than that, perhaps. 
A criminal — reckless, diabolical, blood-stained. 

The moments passed, and she could only sit there 
saying over those words, yet conscious all the time that 
Nora must be saved at any cost. She put the letter 
down and went over to the box. She lifted out the 
dresses, the lace, and silken petticoats one by one. 
Underneath lay the sealed packet of which the letter 
spoke. The wax had made blood-red splashes on the 
paper, as if a hurried hand had used it. 

She took up the packet. It was square and heavy 
and loosely wound round it was a thin silver chain, to 
which a key was attached. 

“ A box ! ” thought Lyle. “ Ought 1 to open it ? 
She says, ‘ If such a thing should happen, or appear 
likely to happen . . .’ But it has happened. I can- 
not prevent it now. Yet she is not married to him ; 
there may be something here to save her. Surely that 
was what Jane meant.” 

Perplexed with doubts, she looked again at the sealed 
packet, then put it down on the floor and replaced the 
dresses in the ottoman. That done, she crossed over 
to the door and locked it. Then she drew her chair 
up to the fire and once more read the letter. As she 
finished it a look of resolution flashed over her pale 
face. 


234 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ God knows, Jane, I don’t want your secrets,” she 
half whispered, “ but if another life is in peril I must 
risk all.” 

She broke the seals and tore off the paper. A flat 
leather portfolio lay before her. She opened the lock 
with the key attached to the silver chain. The case 
was full of papers, in single sheets closely written on 
one side, and tied at the top of the pages with red tape. 
This kept them together so that they could easily be 
read. 

Lyle saw that every page was numbered. It was 
evidently a thoughtful and methodical record, put to- 
gether for a purpose. She made up the fire and 
glanced at the clock. It was only ten. 

Then she commenced the task of reading those 
closely covered sheets. 


“ I am writing this story of a woman’s suffering, for 
two purposes. One is to relieve my own brain from its 
pressure of trouble, the other to keep ever fresh and 
green in my memory the vengeance I have sworn on 
one man. 

“ I do not know the man yet, but I shall know him. 
I do not even know where to seek him, but I shall find 
him. There never yet was a resolute will that failed 
to gain its purpose and mine is resolute as rock, and 
neither time nor chance shall alter it. 

“ Partly to keep the facts in my memory, partly to 
leave some vindication of my actions behind me in case 
of accident or ill fate, I write these records. I began 
them on that awful day when all my life turned to 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 235 

despair, when the news came from the prison that — she 
— was dying. 

“ I never was a lovable woman or an attractive 
woman ; the heart hunger of my life was not one to be 
satisfied by man’s love, or woman’s friendship. Yet I 
married. There is no need to confide to these pages 
why or whom I married. I was badly used, hardly 
tried, and soon forsaken for a fairer face. But Provi- 
dence understood a woman’s need when He made us 
mothers, and with motherhood came to me my first 
happiness, and my first consolation. 

“ My little girl was very delicate and frail. So much 
the more need had she of me and I of her. I worked 
hard. I was a good needlewoman, and the. big shops 
gave me regular employment. I and my little one were 
never separated. At last a great stroke of luck over- 
took me. An old widower living in Wales, rich and 
somewhat eccentric, engaged me as housekeeper. I 
told him I was a widow and could not leave my child. 
He allowed me to have her with me. 

“Years of peace and prosperity came then. I was 
perfectly content. My little Hester was educated at 
the village school, and grew up strong and healthy and 
beautiful. Plain and homely as I was, my child 
blossomed into beauty that any lady might have 
envied. 

“ When she was about sixteen a rich lady traveling 

through Wales stopped at H and saw her. She 

was an Irish lady, very pleasant and homely, and she 
wanted to engage Hester as her maid. The girl was a 
beautiful worker, besides being quick and handy and 
adaptable. She was delighted at the idea of going into 


236 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

service, of seeing life, for the lady traveled about a 
great deal, she told us, and finally I was persuaded to 
let her go for a year. 

“I had letters from her from time to time. She 
always wrote in good spirits. She was happy and well. 
Her mistress was kindness itself. 

“ Just about that time my master fell ill, and I was 
much taken up with nursing and attending to him. 
His illness was brief, and he died. In his will he left 
me a sum of three hundred pounds for my services. I 
was surprised. I little guessed then the need I should 
have for that money. 

“ When the funeral was over, the servants dismissed, 
and his heir had come to take possession, I began to 
remember the long time that had elapsed since Hessie 
had written. I looked at the address of her last letter, 
and found she had left Ireland, and was somewhere on 
the French coast. I wished she had been nearer, for I 
could have gone to see her. However, she said she 
would soon he coming to England, so I had to content 
myself with writing and telling her of my good for- 
tune. I also sent her ten pounds as a present. The 
rest of my money I invested, and after a short holiday 
I looked out for another situation. I succeeded in ob- 
taining one without much difficulty, for my late 
master’s name was well known, and his written testi- 
monial was only too kind and flattering to my poor 
abilities. 

“ I had received only a short letter from my daugh- 
ter, gratefully acknowledging the money, but giving 
no further information about herself. I was with one 
of the county families of H , Llewellyan by name. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 237 

I had a very easy and very comfortable place. We 
were some distance from the town. News traveled 
slowly and posts were few. 

“One morning I opened a local newspaper of some 
days old, and glancing at the contents I saw that a 
woman had been arrested and imprisoned for child 
murder. It seemed so shocking and so awful a crime 
to me that I could hardly bring myself to read it. 
When I did, my first horror gave way to pity. 

“ The girl was very young, only seventeen, they said. 
She had crossed over in a little barque from the French 
coast to Holyhead. Arrived there, she had made 

her way on foot to the little village of H : . She 

had gone to a farmhouse and asked for a night’s rest, 
which had been given her. That night her child was 
born — a little sickly, premature creature. The farm- 
er’s wife attended her, and next day she declared her 
intention of pursuing her journey. She said she was 
going to friends only a few miles off. She seemed a 
little light-headed and queer, the woman thought, and 
she tried to dissuade her from getting up. Finally the 
girl agreed to wait there another day. 

“ That night, however, she must have dressed her- 
self and got out of the house. She was found wander- 
ing about near the river at dawn next morning. The 
child was not with her, and as she seemed ‘ queer,’ the 
men who found her took her to the police station. 
She gave no name, and was sent to the workhouse. 

“The suspicions of the matron led to inquiries, and 
she was traced back to the farmhouse. They asked 
what she had done with the infant, but she denied 
ever having had a child. She was then brought up 


238 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

before the magistrates, and accused of having made 
away with it. Search was made, and the body was 
found in the river close to the bank — dead. She ob- 
stinately denied it was hers, or that she had killed it. 
The case was remanded, and she was committed to 
prison. Badly stated, these were the facts. 

“ I put the paper down with an uncomfortable feel- 
ing. The age of the accused girl was the age of Hes- 
ter. A coincidence, but one that left behind it a sense 
of sadness and discomfort. I wondered what lay be- 
hind the story. The old, old tragedy of woman’s 
wrongs and man’s deception ? I wondered also whether 
the girl had any friends. I took up the paper again, 
and looked at the concluding notice. She was to be 
tried at the assizes. They opened the following week. 
I made up my mind to be present, and hear the story 
as it would be told in court. 

“ I write calmly of this now. Death is calm, so, I 
think, is despair. It is despair that helps me to put 
into written wor.ds the sorrow that has been worse than 
death to me. The fewer words, the easier the task. 
I went to the court. I saw the prisoner brought into 
the dock — a slight, frail creature, with bent head and 
downcast eyes. The head was lifted, the eyes looked 
in terrified question at the cold crowd of men and 
women. 

“ They were the eyes of my own child. . . . 

“ They said I fainted — fell like a log from my seat. 
I don’t know. I called on death, but my time had not 
yet come. 

“ Let me hasten on. There are some griefs no words 
can paint ; such grief was mine. I will only say I went 


239 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

to the prison day after day. I paid every farthing I 
had for her defence. I pleaded as one pleads for life 
for some clue to this awful tragedy. She still main- 
tained that she had had no child. It was plain her 
mind was unhinged, and the lawyer could only build 
her defence on that one foundation. 

“I wrote to the lady with whom she had lived in 
Ireland. She answered that Hester had left her sud- 
denly without notice or warning, saying she was sum- 
moned by me. That was two months before I had 
received her letter saying she was going to France. 
There was no trace of her at the place named in that 
letter. She would not say where she had been. It 
was a poor case, and my heart was filled with agony 
and terror as I saw how it went against her. I had no 
hope — no more had her counsel. 

“ The day came, the last day. I heard the verdict 
— guilty. There was a recommendation to mercy at 
the end of it. They bore me home out of court sense- 
less. She still seemed totally unmoved. 

“ For weeks she lay in prison while the recommen- 
dation was being considered. I was allowed to see her, 
but never alone. Each time she seemed to me a little 
paler, a little thinner, a little more frail. I could not 
weep, I could not grieve. I was glad to think that 
death might seize her before that last horrible indig- 
nity should befall her. At last she was too ill to be 
in her cell, and was taken to the prison infirmary. 
There she died. 

“ I swore on her dead body that I would find her be- 
trayer, if I had to search the world through for him. 

“ They gave me her poor clothes, and a little worn 


240 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

Testament that had lain in her bosom. Nothing more. 
No letter, no scrap of writing. With these I had to 
work my way to the vengeance I had sworn. For that 
purpose alone I lived. 

“ My first difficulty was money. Almost all my 
three hundred pounds had gone to pay lawyers, and 
gain for her some poor comforts or kindness in that 
awful time of imprisonment. I took another situation, 
changing my name so that I should not be identified 
with this awful tragedy. I worked hard, I saved every 
penny, and then began my quest. The person I em- 
ployed, however, at length came to a dead wall in his 
discoveries. He had had all my money, and left me 
with only one clue. I resolved to follow it up myself. 

“ Instincts are strange things. What prompts us to 
like one person and dislike another ? What drew me 
to Miss Nora, and made me love her as I had loved no 
one but my ill-fated child ? I cannot tell. What 
made me turn cold and faint the first time I ever set 
eyes on Jasper Standish ? What made me shrink from 
him as one shrinks from some loathsome and corrupt 
thing ? Again I cannot tell. Both these facts are 
true. The reason of them is still unexplained. 

“ When Miss Nora was leaving school, she asked me 
to come to Ireland with her and be her housekeeper. 
I went gladly — the more so as I knew that her home 
was in the country where my daughter had lived, the 
place but a few miles from the town where Miss Nora’s 
father was bank manager. I had been very patient. 
Now it seemed to me that Fate was playing into my 
hands. I might find out the truth at last. 

u I have said that I felt a curious antipathy towards 


241 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

Jasper Standish, the county inspector. He was a 
handsome man, a popular man, a great friend of Mr. 
Callaghan’s, and a great admirer of Miss Nora’s. Yet 
— I hated him. Above all, I hated to see him beside 
her. His every look and touch seemed to me a desecra- 
tion of her innocent girlish grace and beauty. Perhaps 
it was that hatred that set me on the track of discovery. 

“ I watched him furtively, as one watches an enemy. 
I bribed the services of a rough, half-witted Irish lad, 
who was his spy and creature. I made him mine. 
Where his master gave him ha’pence, I gave him -silver. 
Instead of kicks and oaths, he had kind words. He 
would do anything for me, and I knew I could no- 
where have found a more useful tool. No one knew 
that I had any communication with him. I used to 
meet him secretly at night, and never twice in the 
same place. 

“ On two occasions my absence was discovered : once 
by Dr. Dan, when I was staying there after the murder, 
and once by Miss Lyle, shortly after we had all come 
to the Hermitage. But she did not recognize me. 
She thought it was one of the younger servants. Who 
would have suspected plain, middle-aged, ill-favored 
Jane of midnight assignations ? I incurred Dr. Dan’s 
suspicions. He has distrusted me ever since. He 
little knew for what purpose I was working. 

“ I come now to the dread and awful discovery I have 
made respecting this man — Jasper Standish. I come 
to the reason of his secret animosity towards me. I come 
also to the reason of my terror lest Miss Nora’s girlish 
fancy should become something deeper. (Pray God 
that it may not !) My heart grows cold with deadly 
16 


242 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

fear as here I put down in written words the suspicion 
that before long I mean to turn into accusation, and to 
build up which I have been watching, waiting, working 
so patiently : — 

“ I believe Jasper Standish to be the murderer of Mr. 
Callaghan l ” 


CHAPTER XXVII. 


Lyle gave a faint, horrified cry. The papers dropped 
from her hand and lay upon the floor. The room 
seemed chill and full of shadows. The fire had died 
down while she had been occupied in reading ; the 
candles on the mantel-shelf burned low in their 
sockets. 

She looked about her with a sudden dull wonder, 
asking dumbly why this horror had been thrust upon 
her ; why, suddenly, all peace and joy of life had 
passed from illusion to tragedy ; why that coveted ex- 
perience had brought so much in its train of woe and 
gloom and desolation ; why she should be the chosen 
recipient of these confidences ; that it should fall to 
her lot to crush Nora’s heart with a suspicion so hate- 
ful ; that her own instinctive dislike to Jasper Standish 
must suddenly arraign and condemn him ? All this 
rushed dimly and confusedly over her, and made her 
senses reel and her heart grow faint. 

She replenished the fire. A horror of the darkness 
and loneliness came over her. That man who had sat 
at her father’s table, touched her hand, whispered 
odious and enamored compliments in her unwilling 
ears — that man — a murderer \ 

She thought of Nora’s ignorance, Nora’s peril, Nora’s 

243 


244 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

love. It was too awful, seen by the light of these 
written records. Every love-word, every kiss, every 
look were tainted with a new horror. There was no 
time to be lost. 

Then she remembered there was more to read. She 
lit fresh candles, and picked up the MS. from the rug 
where it had fallen. Once more she set herself to read 
those close, cramped lines. 

It was no easy task to decipher them. It was a harder 
one to connect hastily jotted fragments. Notes of 
meetings with Mickey, scraps of conversations he had 
overheard, the story of the blood-stained shirt, of 
Jaspers midnight ride to the old Jew miser, of his 
drinking bouts, his seeming terror of loneliness or dark- 
ness. Then came the story of suspicion against her- 
self, and Mickey’s warning and her sudden flight. 

There it ended, only at the bottom was written : 

<i I shall not be far. I cannot leave until my task is 
accomplished, until I have the proofs complete, and 
Jasper Standish is caught in the net of his own set- 
ting.” 

“ I shall not be far ! ” Lyle repeated the words me- 
chanically. Not far ! Then Jane had not left the 
country — perhaps not even the neighborhood. Where 
could she be ? Who would give her hiding-place ? 
Bills were out everywhere, offering reward for her 
arrest. Far and wide the rumor had spread, that, if 
not actually the criminal, she was implicated very 
deeply in the murder of the bank manager. The story 
of the marked money was on every tongue. Sir An- 
thony himself believed in her guilt. 

Not far ! Lyle’s heart grew sick with fear. What 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 245 

new horrors might not happen, what fresh discoveries 
might not be made ? 

She looked at those closely written sheets with ever- 
growing terror. That they were in her keeping, that 
she must guard them, conceal them, use them perhaps 
at some future time, filled her with apprehension. 
Her eyes sought a hiding-place, but no lock seemed 
secure enough, no receptacle safe enough to hold that 
incriminating story. 

She remembered at last that in the turret room 
among her collection of art treasures was a little inlaid 
cabinet — a thing of many drawers and complicated 
locks. She resolved to put these papers in it. The 
keys hung on her chatelaine, quaint, tiny things of 
brass and steel. 

In the morning — yet why wait for morning ? Why 
not hide them at once ? 

She rose. A clock in the distance struck one. She 
had spent three hours over the perusal of Jane’s con- 
fessions. Every one in the house must be in bed and 
asleep long since. 

She hurriedly removed her dress, and wrapped her- 
self in a soft cashmere dressing-gown, slipped her feet 
into velvet slippers, and taking the candle in her hand, 
opened the door and looked out. All was dark and 
quiet. Shaking with nervous fear, she flitted across 
the carpeted corridor, and up the stairs. 

At the door of the turret room she paused, overcome 
again by that chilling sense of terror which had visited 
her the first time she had entered it. Her hand turned 
the handle. 

The door was locked, and the key was on the inside ! 


246 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

She stood there as if unable to believe her senses. 
Had the key been without, as usual, she could have be- 
lieved some one had turned it for security ; but there 
was no key to be seen. Many days had passed since 
she had been in the room. Was it possible one of the 
servants had locked it, and removed the key ? 

As she stood there, cold and motionless, asking her- 
self these questions, her strained ears caught a sound. 
It was the sound of sustained and regular breathing in 
the room — the breathing of a heavy sleeper. Almost 
paralyzed with terror, her knees gave way, and she 
sank on the mat before the door. Some one was in the 
room — asleep. In her new position her ear was close 
to the keyhole. She heard the sound distinctly. 

The candle was on the floor beside her. She still 
held the leather case containing the MS. in her hand. 
Quite suddenly she heard the soft pat-pat of her little 
terrier’s paws on the staircase behind her. He ran up 
to her side, and the sense of his presence seemed to 
bring back her courage. 

She pointed to the*door, and he put his nose to the 
crack below, and sniffed two or three times. Then he 
wagged his tail reassuringly, and looked at her. That 
wag and that look were eloquent of meaning. Who- 
ever was in the room was no stranger, or no house- 
breaker, otherwise the dog would have barked. 

It was a mystery, certainly ; but a mystery she must 
wait for the morning to explain. She patted the dog 
softly, and rose from her knees somewhat unsteadily. 
In doing so she lurched against the door ; the handle 
rattled. At the same moment a half-subdued cry came 
from within. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 247 

“ Who’s there ? ” it said. 

Lyle’s heart beat like a sledge-hammer. It was Jane 
Grapnell’s voice ! 

Jane Grapnell must be in that room. 

She cried her name softly. “ Don’t be afraid, Jane. 
It’s I — Lyle. ” 

There was the rustle of a dress across the floor, a 
hand upon the key, a whisper. 

“ Miss Lyle, is it you, really ?” 

“ Yes, Jane, yes. What are you doing in that room 
at this hour of night ! ” 

The key turned ; the door opened. Lyle was look- 
ing at the pale, worn face of her lost housekeeper. 
Jane drew her in, closed the door, and again turned 
the key. She took the light from the girl’s trembling 
hand and set it on the table. Lyle sank into a chair, 
and looked at her for explanation. 

“ You are wondering how I came here. Ah ” 

She drew a quick breath. Her eyes had fallen on 
the leather case clasped in Lyle’s hand. 

“You have read it. You had to read it ? ” 

“ I found it to-night. I brought it here to hide. I 
was afraid to trust it anywhere in my bedroom.” 

“ Then the necessity has arisen ? ” 

“ Nora is engaged to Jasper Standish. She told me 
with her own lips.” 

Jane’s face grew ashy gray, and she caught at the 
table to steady herself. 

“Already!” she whispered faintly. “Already! 
Oh, what can I do ? The time is not ripe ; the trap 
not baited.” 

“Are you sure of what you say — here ?” asked 


248 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

Lyle. “It is an awful charge to bring against any 
one. ” 

“ I am as sure as that I live ; but I can’t prove every- 
thing yet.” 

“ And you are hiding, and a warrant is out against 
you, and yet I find you locked up here, in my room. 
How did you get here unobserved ? How have you 
lived these three weeks ? ” 

“ Ah ! forgive me, Miss Lyle. I can only trust to 
your mercy. Look.” 

She crossed the room, went up to the wall, and 
touched a panel. To Lyle’s amazement it slid back, 
and showed a wide space. She rose and looked 
down. 

It was the stairway of which Jasper Standish had 
spoken. 

“ There ? ” gasped Lyle. “ Do you mean to say you 
have lived there ? ” 

“ Yes. You see this little sort of recess ? 1 

brought some rugs and shawls, and here I used to sit. 
At night I came out and used your room. You may 
remember you have not entered it since Miss Nora 
went away.” 

“ But what did you do for food ?” 

“ I took the liberty of visiting the larder now and 
then. Bread and water and a little cooked meat were 
enough for me. If I wanted exercise, I lit this lan- 
tern and walked up and down the stairway. It leads 
to a long, narrow passage, like a tunnel. It is lined 
with brick. The end of it is a sort of cave close to the 
river.” 

“Good Heavens! But Jasper Standish knows of 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 249 

this secret passage. He might have searched it — have 
found you at any moment.” 

She turned her white face to Lyle. “ How does he 
know of it ? ” 

“ How can I tell ? Perhaps he discovered it acci- 
dentally ; he said he was searching for an escaped 
criminal. How did you discover it yourself, Jane ? ” 

cs The day Miss Nora and you were fixing up the 
room. You said you were coming back to tea, if you 
remember, and we waited a long time. At last Miss 
Nora went to look for you. I was here alone. I was 
dusting the panels, and I rubbed this one rather hard. 
It moved. I then found there was a spring. It looked 
only like a bit of the carving on the panels. I pressed 
it, and it flew open. I took a light and looked down, 
and saw what a safe hiding-place it was. I tried the 
opening from the inner side, and found it answered 
easily. Then I closed it up again. I meant to tell 
you, but so many things happened, and you were in 
trouble, and Miss Nora sick, and I put it off. 

“ When I got word of what this villain intended, 
when I saw that my liberty was threatened, the idea 
came to hide here and throw him off the scent. He 
would never think I was remaining in the country, 
still less that I had a spy of his own to report to me.” 

“ You still see Mickey ? You trust him ?” 

“ I had to, miss. I met him in the cave. He does 
not know where I come from. That secret is too dan- 
gerous to let out.” 

They were back in the room now. Lyle told of her 
terror at discovering the locked door and hearing the 
heavy breathing. 


250 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“It is the first time for many nights Fve slept, 
miss,” she said humbly. “ I had no right to be here, 
but it was so cold and damp in that cell.” 

“ It’s awful to think of it,” said Lyle with a shud- 
der ; “ but what are you going to do, Jane ? You can’t 
remain here always. Some one might discover you. 
Think of the risk you ran, going down to the kitchen 
to get yourself food.” 

“ I know, miss. I often wondered the dog did not 
bark and alarm the house ; but he never did, and I 
never met a soul.” 

“How long do you think it will be before you have 
your evidence complete ? ” 

She shook her head sadly. “ It’s hard work and 
slow work.” 

Lyle told her then of the search in her room, and 
the discovery of the marked piece of money. “ Of 
course he put it there himself,” she added. “ But 
think how cleverly he planned it.” 

Jane started. The blood rushed to her pale face. 

“Miss Lyle,” she said, “I don’t believe there was 
any marked money at all. He knows Donovan’s safe 
out of the way, and no one likely to call him as wit- 
ness. He just invented that to ruin me. Perhaps 
he’s been a little too clever, and over-reached him- 
self.” 

“ It is an awful business, Jane, however we look at 
it. And I must tell Nora. She is not here now. She 
is staying at Mrs. O’Neil’s. I will go over the first 
thing to-morrow morning — to-day, rather, for the 
whole night has gone. Jane, you must use this room, 
and I will see that no one enters it except to light the 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 251 

fire. Always turn the key, and I will pretend to lock 
it on account of some painting I’m doing. Then every 
night I'll bring you supplies enough for the day. 
You’ll be perfectly safe, unless ” 

Her eyes went to the secret panel — Unless he takes 
it into his head to search that entrance. But I hardly 
think he will. If he did, it would be from the other 
side — the cave. How would you know ? Could you 
possibly escape ? ” 

“ I must bring my rugs and things in here,” said 
Jane. “ I should be certain to hear footsteps or voices 
a long way off if I happened to be in the little chamber. 
I could slip in here.” Her eyes turned from side to 
side. “ You would not allow him to search this room. 
Miss Lyle ? ” 

“ Certainly not. But supposing I was out ? I 
should not even know he was here, if he entered that 
way.” 

“ No, miss, of course not. Well, he could but 
arrest me. I must trust to Providence.” 

Lyle shivered. There was a moment’s silence. Then 
she went to the little cabinet and placed the leather 
case and papers in one of the drawers and locked 
it. 

“ I shall have to show these to Nora,” she said, “ but 
I shall say nothing of your being here, Jane. She is 
so infatuated with this man that she might betray your 
secret. And now I’ll go back to my room. Remem- 
ber you may trust me to the death.” 

“ God bless you, Miss Lyle. I always knew you 
were true as steel.” 

The tears rushed to her eyes. She took the girl’s 


252 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

slender hands and kissed them humbly. Lyle’s own 
eyes were wet with sympathy. 

The revelations of this night had been a series of 
mental shocks. She felt unnerved and unstrung ; and 
the morrow had yet to be faced, and it would bring 
another ordeal. Something told her that that, too, 
would be terrible, would wring her heart and test her 
courage. 

She had lost her lover ; was she also to lose her 
friend ? 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 


From restless sleep and troubled dreams Lyle Orclie- 
ton woke to bright sunshine and to — memory. 

At first she could hardly realize that the events of 
the past night were absolute facts. They seemed too 
fantastic and unreal. But as she lay there, watching 
Molly’s movements about the room, the whole strange 
story came back again : the discovery of the letter, the 
sealed packet, the turret room and its occupant, and 
the peril to Nora. She sprang up hastily and made 
her toilet ; then, going down-stairs, ordered her horse 
to be brought round within an hour. 

Sir Anthony was surprised to find her at the break- 
fast table in her habit. She explained that she was in 
haste to see Kora on a matter of importance, and was 
going to ride over as soon as breakfast was finished. 

Before leaving, she ran up to the turret room. The 
door was unlocked. She entered, closing it carefully 
behind her. Then she lit the fire, which was laid 
ready in the grate, and, going over to the secret door, 
knocked gently. 

“ Are you there, Jane ? ” she asked. 

“ Yes, miss/’ was whispered back. 

“ I am going now to see Miss Callaghan,” said Lyle. 
“You will be quite safe here. No one is likely to 
come. If the door is locked, they will think I locked 

2 53 


254 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

it. You will find tea and sugar in the cupboard, and 
I have brought up a jug of milk and some biscuits. 
You must be perished with cold. Will you come out 
now?” 

The panel slipped back, and Jane entered. She 
looked worn and ill, and half-starved. Lyle’s heart 
ached at sight of her. 

“You poor soul,” she said pityingly. “ I hope this 
will soon end.” 

“ You can’t hope it more than I do, miss,” said Jane 
huskily. 

“Bring in your rugs,” said Lyle, “ and throw them 
on the couch. Now, if we push that bookcase against 
the panel, no one can open it without making a noise.” 

It was a dwarf bookcase of carved oak. They moved 
it into place, and Jane agreed to fill it w r ith the heavi- 
est volumes scattered about the room. 

“ I will come as soon as I return,” continued Lyle. 
“I will always give two taps at the door, pause, and 
then a third — so.” She rapped on the table. “ Don’t 
open to any one else. If any of the servants come, 
which is most unlikely, they’ll find the door locked 
and will go away. Now make yourself some tea, and 
be as comfortable as you can. This is better than your 
voluntary prison, at all events.” 

“May God bless you, Miss Lyle. I’ll never forget 
your kindness.” 

Tears rushed to her eyes as the girl pressed her hand 
and then left the room. She turned the key, and went 
back to the fire, thankful for the warmth and compan- 
ionship of it. 

Lyle mounted “ Meteor,” and rode off on her errand 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 255 

to Nora with a sinking heart. The fresh, sweet air, the 
glitter on grass and leaf, left no glow on her face, or 
hope in her heart. A crushing sense of misery, of the 
vileness and wickedness that lurked beneath Nature’s 
smiles, were all of which she was conscious. 

She was told Nora was in, and dismounting, gave 
her horse to one of the men. “ I shall be here about 
an hour,” she said. 

Nora came to her in the sunny little boudoir which 
was Mrs. O’Neil’s favorite room. She looked startled 
when she saw Lyle’s face. 

“ Has anything happened ?” she asked quickly. 

Lyle kissed her gravely. “ Yes ; I have something 
very serious to tell you. We must not he interrrupted. 
Is there any chance of Mrs. O’Neil coming in ? ” 

“ Hardly. She is not up yet.” 

“ Sit down there, and please, dear, don’t interrupt. 
It is a long story, but I will try to make it as short as 
possible.” 

Nora sat down. There was a look of apprehension 
in her face, at which Lyle wondered. Its roses and 
baby dimples, and charm of smiles and blushes had 
faded into something hard and resolute that seemed 
scarcely allied to girlhood. 

She took a seat facing the window, and looked straight 
out at an elm tree, whose newly budding branches were 
a herald of spring. 

Lyle began her story. 

As simply, as shortly as possible she told it. The 
face before her whitened into ghastliness. 

“ I don’t believe it ! I don’t believe it ! ” came in a 
cracked, husky voice from Nora’s white lips. “The 


256 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

woman is mad to accuse him of such a thing. His 
position, character, everything— give her the lie. Grief 
for her daughter has turned her head.” 

“ I will tell you something, Nora,” said Lyle, in a 
low, pained voice, “ something that I did not breathe 
even to Jane. Mrs. O’Neil once had a favorite maid 
called Hester. ‘ My little Hester,” she called her. 
She told me about her once. This girl left her sud- 
denly, without giving any reason. She learned after- 
wards that she was in some dreadful trouble. What 
happened must have happened while she was here at 
Rathfurley. One of her fellow-servants told Mrs. 
O’Neil that she knew the girl used to meet, secretly, 
the County Inspector. He had just been newly ap- 
pointed.” 

The young face grew almost fierce ; the lines hard- 
ened round the pale, set lips. 

“ It is all false — all ! I don’t believe it ” 

“ Nora ! ” cried Lyle. “ Is it that you won’t be- 
lieve ? For Heaven’s sake try and conquer this infatu- 
ation before it is too late. Think if the proof is at 
hand, if link by link the chain of evidence is completed 
— if Jasper Standish murdered your father for that 
money ” 

The cry that burst from Nora’s lips was so awful, the 
livid face so full of terror, that Lyle shrank back in 
her chair aghast. Wild hands beat the air in frenzy, 
the slight young form was convulsed. 

It’s not true ! ” she screamed again. “ I tell you 
it’s a lie — framed by spite — a lie ! My father ” 

She sprang to her feet and flung herself across the 
floor, raving incoherently. Lyle bent over her, horri- 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 257 

fied at this frantic outburst. She lifted her on to the 
couch, and emptying some water from a flower vase, 
bathed her temples and chafed her cold hands. The 
girl’s senses came gradually back. She grew quieter, 
save for tearless, convulsive sobs that shook her from 
time to time. Lyle tried to loosen her dress at the 
throat, but she clutched it so tightly that it was im- 
possible. Then as suddenly as . the paroxysm had 
seized her it died away. She sat up and looked at 
Lyle. 

“If it’s false,” she said, “I’ll never forgive you. If 
it’s true, it’s too late to save — me.” 

“To — save you ?” gasped Lyle. 

“ Yes. Look ! ” 

She wrenched hooks and eyes and buttons with ruth- 
less fingers. The madness of passion and despair rang 
in her voice and flashed in her eyes. She seized the 
ribbon at her neck and held it out. At the end of it 
hung a plain gold ring. 

Lyle shrank back as though some horror were pursu- 
ing her. “ Dear God in heaven ! Not that , Nora. 
You’re not married ?” 

“I was married yesterday to the man you call my 
father’s — murderer.” 

Stunned and half-stupefied, Lyle sat there — abso- 
lutely speechless. Her temples throbbed, but all 
thought seemed crushed and paralyzed. She could 
only sit staring at the figure on the couch, with its eyes 
hidden from sight, and one quivering hand still hold- 
ing out that ring. 

Married ! Married to Jasper Standish ! The warn- 
ing had come too late. One day, — only twenty-four 

n 


25B The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

hours, — but years could not have meant more, or saved 
less. One day ! Had her eyes caught that scrap of 
lace a little sooner ! 

But what use to talk of f< if s ” now ? The blow had 
fallen. The worst had happened. It was no longer 
Nora, her girlish friend, whom she could save, with 
whom she might plead ; it was Jasper Standish’s wife. 

Suddenly Nora lifted her head and shook back the 
loosened hair. 

“ Oh ! I hate you ! ” she cried. “ And I hate 
Jane ! Yesterday I was the happiest, proudest girl 
in all the country round. To-day what have you and 
your hateful story made of me ? I was to join him in 
Dublin — he is even there now, waiting for me. Do you 
hear ? Waiting for me ! And I daren’t go. I mustn’t 
go. True or false, I must abide by its issue. Oh ! I 
wish I had died yesterday when I was so happy.” 

Lyle’s heart went out to the poor stricken girl. Had 
she not suffered too ? Had she not also learned the 
lesson of a man’s unworthiness ? But beside this 
burden, her own looked light. A mistake is not a 
crime. 

Then a pitiful wail broke forth, and Nora hid her 
face in her hands, and rocked herself to and fro. 

“ Oh ! dad, if you could only speak — if you could 
only tell us,” she moaned. “ You called him friend ; 
he was with you that last night.” 

She broke off, and looked again at Lyle. “ You for- 
get,” she cried. “ He went to the barracks on his way 
home ; he sent a special man to guard the bank. 

Would he have done that if — if Oh ! I can’t say 

it. It is too awful ! ” 


259 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ It is — awful/’ said Lyle faintly. “ For your sake, 
Nora, I could hope he is guiltless. You have faith in 
him, he loves you, he has married you. No one, save 
a fiend incarnate, would have made the child of his 
murdered victim his wife.” 

But even as she said it a thought flashed through 
her mind. A wife cannot give evidence against her 
husband. Jane loved Nora devotedly. Nora was her 
ow r n special friend. What better buffer could he have 
chosen to parry the blows of chance, to close the mouth 
of suspicion, than this helpless girl ? Who, as she her- 
self had said, would credit any one, short of a devil in- 
carnate, taking to his arms and heart the child of the 
man whose blood stained his hands and cried still for 
vengeance on his guilty head ! 

“ What to do ! ” moaned Nora again. “ What to 
do. I can’t think, I can’t act. Oh, Lyle, pity 
me, help me. I think I shall go mad, or kill my- 
self.” 

“ I do pity you, Nora, with all my heart and soul I 
do ; but you have thrown everything and every one 
aside for this man’s sake. You have given him the 
chief and only right over you. What can I or any one 
do for you — now ? ” 

“ I loved him so !” 

“ Where were you married ? Perhaps ” The 

sudden eagerness of her voice gave quick translation 
to an unuttered hope. 

“ It is quite right. You need not think that. I am 
responsible to no one. We were married at the re- 
gistrar’s ” 

“ And afterwards ? ” 


260 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ I came back here. He went to Dublin on busi- 
ness. I was to join him there.” 

“ Was the marriage to be a secret ?” 

“ No. From Dublin I would have written.” 

Lyle’s face took back its look of hopelessness. 

“Then nothing can be done. The moment Jane is 
arrested she will tell her story and bring her witnesses. 
There is the shirt with its blood-stained cuff, the Jew 
to whom he owed that large sum of money, and who 
received it next day ; Mickey Doolan, who has been his 
jackal and spied out his secrets. Jane herself ” 

“ Where is Jane ? ” 

Lyle started. She had determined not to divulge 
the secret of her hiding-place. 

“ From her letter I should say she was still in the 
country,” she answered evasively. “It is almost im- 
possible she can conceal herself much longer.” 

“ If I could see her ” cried Nora. “ She is fond 

of me. She would not desire my unhappiness.” 

Lyle stared at her in amazement. “You surely 
would not compromise matters ? Go to this man as 
his wife while even a shadow of suspicion hovers over 
him ? Nora, you would never know an hour’s peace.” 

Nora wrung her hands in agony. 

“ What have I ever done that I should be tortured 
like this ? It is too hard, too cruel.” 

The tears streamed down her face. The eyes that 
looked up at Lyle were eyes of desperation. 

“ What to do ? ” she cried, looking from side to side 
like a hunted animal. “What to do? And he is 
waiting forme in Dublin.” 

“ Telegraph that you are ill — that you can’t come. 


26 i 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

I will take it to the station as I go home. And, Nora, 
you mustn’t stay here. Either come back to us or go 
to Dr. Dan.” 

“I will come back to you,” she said. “It doesn’t 
matter — nothing matters now. My heart is broken ! v 

She fell back on the cushions of the couch like a 
dead thing. 


CHAPTER XXIX. 


To her dying day Lyle Orcheton felt she should never 
forget that awful time. 

What she telegraphed to Jasper Standish was only 
truth, for Xora when she arrived was in a high fever. 
Lyle sent for Dr. Dan, but said nothing of the mar- 
riage. It must come out, she knew, but at present it 
seemed wiser to keep it secret. 

Indeed, she was too terrified and bewildered to think 
calmly, and adopted the prudent course of saying noth- 
ing that was not absolutely necessary. 

“She has had some mental shock/’ said Dr. Dan, as 
he felt the racing pulse and looked at the flushed face, 
and listened to the pitiful moaning that never ceased. 
“She only returned to-day, you say ?” 

“Yes. She was staying with Mrs. O’Xeil for a fort- 
night. I know — I have reason to think that she has 
had bad news of — some one for whom she cares very 
much.” 

“ I thought so. A love affair. And it wouldn’t be 
hard to fix upon the other side, or I’m no judge of 
appearances. Well, my dear young lady, what’s to be 
done ? She is in for a sharp attack of fever. I can 
only hope it won’t touch the brain. She will want 
careful nursing and incessant watchfulness. I’ll send 
you in a good capable nurse. We must trust to Provi- 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 263 

dence and youth and a good constitution for the rest, 
but the poor child has been sorely tried. She really 
never got the shock of her father’s death.” 

After he had left, Lyle, stole up to the turret room 
and gave the signal. 

“ The worst has happened, Jane,” she said. “I was 
too late. She has married him. The shock of your 
story and accusation nearly killed her. I brought her 
back here. Dr. Dan fears brain fever.” 

Jane’s face grew rigid. “ Married ! Married to 
that villain ! God help the poor child ! Oh, Miss 
Lyle, if I had only warned her, only spoken in time ! ” 

“ She is absolutely infatuated with him. She re- 
fused to believe a word of what I told her. Jane, 
what is to be done now ? ” 

“There is only one thing, only one. I must give 
myself up. He is in Dublin, you say ? I will go to 
the magistrate and tell my story. Then — I must take 
my chance.” 

“ Oh ! Jane,” cried Lyle, panting with fright. “The 
risk — have you thought of it ? ” 

“ In those long, solitary hours I have thought of 
everything. Besides, you ought not to harbor me, 
Miss Lyle. You are making yourself my accomplice in 
the eyes of the law.” 

“ I can’t think, or advise, or judge,” cried poor Lyle 
desperately. “ My brain seems dazed.” 

“ It has been too hard on you ; but a little patience, 
and all will be right. I feel sure of that. God does 
not punish the innocent for the guilty, though He 
makes them suffer. We have suffered enough, Miss 
Lyle — I, and you, and that poor stricken child.” 


264 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ I must go to her now, Jane. I daren’t leave her 
long. The nurse comes to-night. I shall give up my 
room and take the spare one. That will leave me free 
to come here unobserved. Do nothing till I see you 
again ; rest, sleep if you can to-night. You will need 
all your strength, all your courage.” 

“ God knows I shall, Miss Lyle ; but I have come to 
the end of my patience. In my dreams — and I am 
something of a fatalist. Miss Lyle — I have always seen 
him with the rope round his neck, and I am putting it 
there. I have woven it strand by strand. It is almost 
strong enough at last. 

With those words ringing in her ears, Lyle went 
down to Nora’s bedside. “It is almost strong enough 
at last.” 

“And I blamed Derrick,” she thought. “I called 
him harsh names, and judged him as though a fault 
were sin. Sin ! My God ! Beside this vile wretch, his 
ver^ sins seem innocent.” 

* # # * * 

Left alone, and sure now that Jasper Standish was 
too far away to cause her any immediate fear, Jane set 
to work to write out briefly and clearly the story of her 
discovery, her suspicions, her proofs. This document 
she resolved to take with her to the magistrate. She 
would leave her confessions in Lyle’s care. 

It was dusk before she had finished her self-imposed 
task, and she was afraid to light a lamp. She drew the 
thick curtains across the windows, and sat down by the 
fire. Then she took from her pocket the little worn 
Testament that had belonged to her daughter. It had 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 265 

never left her day or night since on it she had sworn 
that oath of vengeance. 

She gazed at it now, and thought of a happy school- 
girl carrying it to lessons and to church, a bright head 
bending over it in the firelight, conning favorite texts. 
With tear-filled eyes she opened the tiny book and 
turned over the pages, as she had often done before. 
The print was small, the paper very thin. Here and 
there on the margin of texts would be marks or initi- 
als. In the dull glow of the firelight Jane could scarcely 
decipher them. Hester had had a trick of marking or 
scoring passages that were favorites in any book she 
used, and this little Testament was full of such marks. 

As Jane’s fingers mechanically turned the leaves, she 
came to one where the writing was infinitesimally small. 
It ran down one side of the page. She would have 
thought nothing of it, if a vivid tongue of flame had not 
chanced to leap out from the fire at the same moment 
and light up a word at the end of the sentence. The 
word was “ Standish.” 

Jane’s heart gave one suffocating throb. She held 
the page close to the little spurt of flame, but the writ- 
ing was so fine she could not read it distinctly. Yet 
that one word stood out, and letter by letter she spelt 
it to assure herself there was no mistake. The tongue 
of flame died down, but now her mind was wholly set 
on deciphering that writing. 

She gently stirred the coals to brightness, but the 
closeness of the lines and the wavering light made 
reading a hard task for sight that was none of the best. 
At last she remembered that among the things Lyle 
had unpacked and left scattered about was a large 


266 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

magnifying glass. She carefully laid the book down 
at that open page and began to search. Before long 
she found it. The lire burnt now with a steady glow. 
Kneeling on the rug, she applied the glass to the writ- 
ing, and read as follows : — 

“ . . . In peril of my life. He swears to murder me 
if I ever breathe his name. Yet on this very book 
he swore to marry me. If I could reach England. 

. . . If — Jasper Standish ” 

The writing broke olf at the end of the page. In a 
frenzy of anxiety Jane turned the next leaf. Nothing. 
Then slowly, one by one, she parted and scanned them. 
At the foot of another page came some more : — 

“ My mother — if I could only reach her ! But not 
even she must know the truth. . . . No proof, he 

says. No one would believe — a disgraced — friendless 
— woman. . . . Has God no pity ? . . 

That was all. All Jane’s patient search could dis- 
cover no more. As far as she herself was concerned, 
it was enough. She knew now why she had instinc- 
tively shunned and disliked Jasper Standish. She 
could imagine in what bonds of shame and terror he 
had held her poor frightened and deceived child. 

She thought of the distraught, half-dying creature 
whom his sin had driven into the hands of the law ; of 
those awful weeks of suspense ; of that death in the 
prison infirmary, that dishonored grave beside which 
no love might mourn. She thought — and blind and 
burning rage throbbed in every pulse and thrilled every 
sense with but one fierce desire for vengeance. 

He was the wrong-doer. He had betrayed this poor 
child ; he had sent her to prison and to death ; and 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 267 

yet he lived and was honored and respected, and had 
prospered. She threw herself on her knees, clasping 
to her heart the God-sent testimony for which she had 
prayed so long. 

“0 Lord of Power and Justice,” she prayed, “let 
not such crimes escape Thy vengeance. In Thy hands 
lie the issues of wrong and right, of life and death. 
Can guilt like this escape the penalty it has defied ? ” 

A storm of sobs mingled with the ejaculations. For 
the first time since she had set out on her quest she 
was shaken to the core. She held the clue ; she re- 
cognized the purpose that had guided her thither. 
She was poor and obscure and of no account, and she 
had to face a powerful and relentless foe, yet she never 
quailed. The proof for which she had prayed and 
searched so long was here at last before her. Often as 
she had turned over the leaves of that Testament she 
had never opened it at that one place, never noticed 
those written lines. 

They had been revealed to her at the very moment 
when she had despaired of finding proof as to who had 
absolutely been the child’s betrayer. She looked upon 
that revelation as a miracle. She thanked Heaven for 
it. She took it as a sign that she was indeed destined 
to bring this man’s sin home to him, and her failing 
courage revived. 

When she rose from her knees her face was calm, her 
eyes held a new resolve and a new hope. She thrust 
the little volume into the bosom of her gown. It was 
too precious to be trusted anywhere out of her own 
possession. Then she carefully folded together the 
statement she had prepared for the magistrate, 


268 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

To-night she was to meet Mickey Doolan. To-night 
he had promised to bring the shirt with him. She 
slowly paced the room, going over her story bit by bit. 
Mickey was uncertain, and easily terrified. She had 
taken down his testimony carefully. He had promised 
to swear to it when called upon, but she wondered 
whether he could be depended on. Everything now 
hinged upon the strength of her case, and her ability 
to persuade the magistrate to grant a warrant for the 
arrest of Jasper Standish. 

She was running great risk, she knew. She would 
be detained — imprisoned, perhaps. She did not know 
the power or extent of the law, but at any risk to her- 
self the truth must be told. Jasper Standish was in 
Dublin. If his room was searched, if incriminating 
evidence could be found there, the case was clear. But 
she had to face the difficulties of suspicion cast on her- 
self ; of his popularity and power in the county ; of 
the possible refusal to grant a warrant ; of her own 
immediate arrest. 

She felt faint and giddy. She knew she would need 
all her strength, all the coolness of brain and heart. 
She was to meet a foe ruthless and unscrupulous, who 
nad shown himself without conscience or remorse. She 
had to save Nora from his clutches. She had to 
avenge her child’s dishonor, her master’s cruel murder. 

That last thought steadied her. 

She needed food and rest. She must compose her- 
self, keep her self-control at any cost. So much was at 
stake now. Life, honor, justice, all in one weak 
woman’s hands. Jasper’s power and Jasper’s treachery 
would be arrayed against her. The keeping of his 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 269 

secret meant the safety of his own neck. He would 
hesitate at nothing. 

Her only chance lay in being first in the field — in 
persuading the magistrate to grant that warrant while 
her enemy was away in Dublin. 


CHAPTER XXX. 


The night closed in dark and misty. 

Lyle stood by Nora’s bedside, watching her with 
anxious eyes. The nurse had come and was putting 
everything into regulation sick-room order. Dr. Dan 
had administered a sleeping draught, and it was just 
beginning to take effect ; the restless head lay quiet, 
the fevered eyes were closed, the quick breathing was 
growing calm. 

Lyle moved noiselessly across the room. “If she 
sleeps to-night,” she whispered, “there is hope she 
will escape brain fever, is there not ? ” 

“Yes, Miss Orcheton,” said the woman cheerfully. 
“ But perhaps in two hours she’ll wake, and it will all 
commence over again. I shall watch her all night.” 

“I don’t feel as if I could sleep,” said Lyle. “If 
you hear me about in the night, don’t be surprised. I 
am fearfully anxious.” 

“ Do you occupy the next room, miss ? ” 

“No ; but I am on the same floor. I will come to 
the outer door and listen. If all is quiet, I shall know 
she is sleeping. I won’t disturb you.” 

“ I may need you. If she should be violent — some- 
times they are.” 

Lyle shuddered. Poor Nora ! Great indeed was her 
270 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 27 1 

punishment ; awful would be her suffering when she 
woke again to consciousness. 

She left the room and went to her newly-chosen one 
at the end of the corridor. 

There was a bright fire burning. Her dressing-gown 
lay on the chair. She put it on and unloosened her 
heavy hair and began to brush its gleaming silken 
length. At one o’clock she was to go to Jane in order 
to receive her last instructions. At daybreak Jane 
would leave the turret room by the secret door, and 
make her way by a circuitous route to the magistrate’s 
house. She had to evade detection or pursuit. It was 
important no one should see her leave the Hermitage, 
or arrest her on her way to Mount Urris. 

To Lyle the time seemed endless. She tried to read, 
but her eyes scanned only meaningless words. She 
went to the window and leaned out into the misty 
coolness of the night. Neither star nor moon was 
visible. 'The trees stood like shadowy sentinels on 
either side the avenue where her glad feet had once 
sped to Herrick. Herrick ! Her heart throbbed as she 
thought of him. 

Had he been but what she thought him, how she 
could have trusted his strength and asked his help ! 
But he was far away now, and the joy of her life had 
gone with him. 

How hardly Fate had served Nora and herself ! 
Their dream of “ fairy princes ” had turned out a tale 
of demons and disappointments. Through no en- 
chanted vale had their feet glided, but rather through 
dark forests of trouble and terror and disaster. A 
few golden hours, and then all succeeding ones had 


272 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

seemed weighted with lead. A few happy days, and 
the months and years to come all shadow and loneliness 
and heart-sickness ! 

She leaned her head on her hands and cried silently 
for sheer misery. The heavy clouds above seemed 
no darker than the clouds about her own life and Nora’s. 
Poor unhappy Nora ! Her fate was the worst. No 
wonder she had asked so pitifully what had she ever 
done that she should be so tried. No wonder her brain 
and strength had given way beneath a shock so terrible* 

She dried the falling tears and turned away from the 
window. The house was very silent now ; every one 
had retired to rest. She glided softly down the thickly 
carpeted corridor, and listened at the door of her owu 
room. All was still. Evidently Nora had slept on. 
The nurse’s fears were as yet unrealized. 

Once more she returned to the fireside and tried to 
read. It was midnight now. Another hour to be 
passed — another hour of waiting and imagining. 

The night had grown colder, or else her fears had 
chilled her blood. She went to the wardrobe and took 
down a long dark cloak and threw it round her. Surely 
she might venture now. 

Again she paused to listen. 

Not a sound anywhere. Darkness and stillness kept 
watch with her. Nothing else. 

Like a shadow she stole along the corridor and 
reached the stairs. Again she paused. A low faint 
whine reached her ears. She glanced down and saw 
her little dog sitting there. His ears were pricked, his 
eyes glanced up the narrowing stairway that led to the 
turret room. She listened intently, but all was still. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 273 

“ Come, Tim,” she whispered, and the little creature 
followed her silently. 

She reached the door and gave the signal. There 
was no answer. Again she knocked. Neither sound 
nor movement from within. She tried the handle, and 
to her surprise the door opened. She entered the 
room. Her own candle was the only light. The fire 
had died down ; it was dark and solitary. Evidently 
Jane had not returned from that meeting with 
Mickey. 

Her eyes went next to the secret entrance. The 
hook-case was pushed aside, and the panel half open. 
The little terrier sprang suddenly forward, laid his 
nose to the ground, and gave a low, uneasy whine. 
She called him hack, and he came obediently, hut his 
eyes and ears spoke of distress, and that soft whimper 
of remonstrance broke from him again. 

Lyle tried to stir the fire into life, and bent down, 
feeding it with wood and paper. The ruddy blaze 
leaped up, and she held her cold hands to its welcome 
warmth. 

Suddenly a sound startled her. She sprang to her 
feet, her heart beating madly with terror. She heard 
the sound of flying feet, of panting breath. 

A moment, and a figure rushed in, slamming the 
panel behind it. 

It was Jane. Her face was white as death, her eyes 
were scared and wild. 

“ Pursued ! ” she panted. 

It told Lyle all. Quick as lightning she opened the 
door. “ Go to my room,” she whispered. Then 
closed it and blew out the light. 

18 


274 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

A hurried knocking came at the secret panel, then 
a heavy blow. 

“ Who’s there ? ” demanded Lyle. 

The answer came in the voice she expected, the 
voice she dreaded. “Open!” it said. “Open in 
the name of the law ! ” 

She stood there rooted to the spot. Movement and 
speech were impossible. There came a crash, a rush 
of cold air, the splintered panel flew back, and she was 
face to face with Jasper Standish. He held a lantern 
in his hand. Jane had dropped it in her hurried flight. 
The light flashed on Lyle, on the dark cloak, its hood 
encircling her white face, on the anger and defiance in 
her eyes. 

The Inspector staggered back a step, and then 
looked from her round the room. 

“ You !” he said. “ Was it you I followed ?” and 
a brutal oath escaped him. 

Lyle looked at his flushed face and wild, savage eyes 
with a sudden terror of her own helplessness. He had 
evidently been drinking heavily. It was no pleasant 
situation for any girl alone, far removed from assist- 
ance, at this hour of the night, with a man whom she 
knew to be conscienceless, criminal, desperate. 

“What brings you here?” she demanded, trying 
bravely to keep the fear of her heart from her voice. 
“ What do you mean by this intrusion ? ” 

“I’ve reason to suspect you’ve some one hiding 
here,” he said. “ She has slipped through my fingers 
before ; she shan’t escape now. I saw her.” 

He paused abruptly. Lyle’s sarcastic smile cut 
short his words. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 275 

“ Are you quite sure who it was you did see, Mr. 
Standish ?" she asked. “ This is my room, and if I 
choose to use that staircase, I fail to see what right you 
have to prevent it, still less what right you have to fol- 
low me.” 

He looked at her with lowering eyes, with reluctant 
admiration and baffled rage commingled. 

“You!” he repeated. “ You, the proud Miss 
Orcheton ! You use this entrance for private assigna- 
tions ! — for I saw the man as he ran off, mind you. A 
pretty scandal ! A fine tale for the country ! Either 
you tell me whom you're screening, or I’ll give this 
news to the gossips to-morrow morning, if only to pay 
you out for your airs and insolence to me ! " 

All Lyle's pride and spirit rose to arms at that insult. 
The mask was off at last. The man stood out in his 
true colors, and with something of relief she snatched 
at the chance that revelation gave her. 

“ I have no doubt," she said, “ that you are capable 
of doing that or anything that would injure or traduce 
a helpless woman. But you have no weak fool to 
reckon with now, Mr. Standish. I am a different type 
from Yora Callaghan or — Hester Sands." 

That shot went home. Ghastly fear looked out of 
his face, the lantern fell from his shaking hand. Lyle 
still held the matches with which she had rekindled 
the fire. She struck one, and lit the candle on the 
table. He tried to recover himself, but his agitation 
was plain to see. 

“ I don't know what you mean," he said, stooping 
for the lantern. 

“ I think you do," she answered, and her courage 


276 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

revived. “ The woman you are hunting down is the 
mother of Hester Sands ; and you are Hester Sands’ 
murderer.” 

He recoiled as if struck by a blow. Of all accusa- 
tions he had expected, of all dangers for which he was 
prepared, this accusation and this danger he alone had 
overlooked. That old sin, that long-forgotten passion, 
had sprung into life to face and condemn him in the 
very spot where his guilty assignations had been made 
— where his false vows had been uttered. 

Lyle was unconscious of that — unconscious of the use 
to which this room had been put, unconscious why that 
sense of misery and tears and unhappiness had haunted 
it and impressed her. But the guilty face, the lurking 
glance that seemed to seek confirmation of that charge 
amidst these changed surroundings, told a tale of their 
own. 

He looked at the girl who had braved him, and into 
his eyes leaped a fierce devouring light. 

“ You shall prove your words,” he said, “ or by the 
heaven above ” 

She drew close to the door with a sudden swift move- 
ment. Her hand was on the latch. 

“ If you move or threaten,” she said, “ I will alarm 
the house. The butler sleeps close at hand, the nurse, 
who is watching your unfortunate wife, is awake, 
within call. I am not afraid of you, Jasper Stan- 
dish.” 

The cruel light in his eyes changed to an unwilling 
admiration. She looked so dauntless and so fair in 
her girlish defiance. Half-sullenly he retreated, and 
stood leaning with one hand on the table that stood 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 277 

between them. As he so leaned, his eyes fell on the 
papers Jane had compiled. 

“My wife!” he repeated. “Do you know that? 
Is she here ?” 

“Yes. I brought her back to-day. She is ill — 
dangerously ill ! 99 

“ And she has told you all — of course ? 99 he sneered. 

“Yes.” 

His eyes fell again on the papers. He saw they 
were addressed to Sir George Ffolliott, of Mount 
Urris. 

“ What are you going to do ? ” 

“ I shall not tell you.” 

Again that evil look flashed, again his lips parted 
and closed on a muttered oath. 

To be baffled, opposed, defied by a helpless girl at 
once roused his worst instincts and his worst fears. 
How much she knew, or how she had learned his secrets, 
puzzled him. Whether she was screening Jane, 
whether it was Jane or herself he had followed he 
could not decide. That her innate hostility against 
himself had suddenly flamed out at such a moment was 
not surprising. He knew she had always hated him, 
but now he was her friend’s husband. She must not 
be allowed to forget that. 

“ Nora is here, then,” he said sullenly. “ And you, 
I suppose, have done your best to traduce me ; but she 
is mine now, and no one can take her from me. As 
for what you mean by that reference to another woman, 
or why you are making yourself an accomplice of your 
guilty servant I am unable to imagine. Accusation is 
not proof ” 


278 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“Not yet,” she interposed. “But the proof will 
follow.” 

The cold sweat broke out on his brow, his hand went 
involuntarily to his breast pocket, his lips whitened. 

Then in a flash the hand was withdrawn. She saw a 
revolver pointed at her head. She knew now that she 
had driven him to bay, that her life would not be worth 
a moment’s purchase if she showed a sign of fear. 

“ If you move,” he said hoarsely, “ if you open that 
door or give a cry for help, I’ll shoot you ! ” 


CHAPTER XXXI. 


Lyle Okchetox stood perfectly passive, facing that 
little mnrderous barrel. He was desperate enough to 
carry out his threat, she felt sure, to add yet another 
crime to his list ; clever enough, perhaps, to make 
some story of accident cover this one, since no witness 
could possibly give him the lie. 

Her life hung by a thread, and she knew it ; yet no 
flutter of fear stirred her pulse. Her hand rested on 
the handle, as it had rested from the moment when she 
had defied him. Calmly, fearlessly she looked at his 
evil face, his outstretched arm. Her heart had only 
room for one thought, “ Poor Nora ! ” 

Seeing her so motionless, Jasper came nearer, cover- 
ing her still with that little deadly barrel. Her heart- 
beats quickened. The silence was so intense that alow, 
faint growl at her feet came to her ears as startlingly 
as a thunderclap. Whether Jasper heard it or not she 
could not tell, but in another moment the little terrier 
had leaped forward and caught him by the leg. 

“ Call him off ! ” he shouted ; but ere Lyle could 
speak the handle was wrenched from her hand, the door 
burst open from without, and as she fell forward, pro- 
pelled by the shock, there rang out a sharp report. 

A thud, a heavy fall, and all was darkness. 

Half-stunned, she raised herself on her knees and 

2 79 


280 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

stared into the gloom. A dark figure lay motionless 
by her side. She could hear the growling of the dog, 
blows, oaths, then silence.” 

“ Jane,” she cried ; “is it you, Jane ?” 

There was no answer. Half-paralyzed with terror, 
Lyle groped her way to the fireplace, and stirred the 
dying embers. Then she lit the candle again, and ap- 
proached the motionless figure. It was Jane. She lay 
on her face, her arms outstretched. Lyle tried to 
raise her, and turned her on her side. The blood was 
pouring from a wound, and in terror Lyle tried to dis- 
cover it. She heard steps approaching. A voice called 
out. It was the voice of the nurse. Lyle shouted back, 
and the woman ran up the stairs and entered. 

She uttered a cry of horror. “ I thought I heard a 
pistol shot.” 

“ Yes ; this woman has been shot,” said Lyle. “ For 
God’s sake help, and don’t ask questions.” 

The woman knelt down and rapidly tore open the 
dress and linen, all soaked with blood. In doing so, she 
touched the little Testament, Jane had thrust into her 
bosom. 

“ That’s saved her,” said the nurse, drawing it out. 
“ The bullet’s glanced aside and struck her in the 
shoulder. See, miss ? ” 

She wiped away the streaming blood, and Lyle, faint 
and sick and overwrought as she was, did her best to 
help her. There was warm water in the little kettle by 
the fire, and the nurse bathed and dressed the wound. 
By that time Jane had recovered consciousness and 
opened her eyes. They assisted her to the couch and 
laid her down. Utterly spent and exhausted, Lyle 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 281 

sank into a chair unable to speak. The nurse glanced 
around and noted the shattered panel. 

“ What was it, miss ? ” she asked. “ Robbers ? ” 

Lyle laughed hysterically. “ The police,” she sard, 

in discharge of their duty. This is one of the little 
surprises of — Ireland.” 

The woman saw she was overwrought. 

“ Let me get you some wine,” she said. “ You look 
scared to death.” 

“No; help me to my room, and then bring her,” 
said Lyle, summoning all her resolution. “ I have 
been frightened, but I shall be all right directly.” 

When she reached her room she remembered the un- 
protected state of the turret now the panel had been 
broken ; also that those important papers were there. 
Mastering her weakness and her fears, she sent the 
nurse down to the dining-room for some wine, and as 
soon as she was gone, returned once more to the room. 

She seized the little cabinet. At the same moment 
she remembered the papers Jane had written and pre- 
pared for the magistrate. They had been on the table. 
She had noticed them when she put down the candle. 

They were gone now. 

Jane still lay on the couch with closed eyes, white as 
death. She could understand or answer nothing. It 
was useless to question her. Taking the little cabinet 
in her hand, Lyle returned to her bedroom. She had 
only time to place it in the wardrobe when the nurse 
entered. 

Lyle was thankful now for the stimulant. It stead- 
ied her nerves and brought back her strength. As 
she recovered, she told the woman briefly what had 


282 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

happened. Of Jane’s concealment, of the pursuit, of 
how she had held the man at bay, as it was important 
the housekeeper should not be arrested until she had 
seen the magistrate, of her unexpected return, and the 
shot. 

The woman looked bewildered. She had read in the 
papers of the Bank Murder, also that a woman was ac- 
cused of it. She could scarcely credit that she was 
under the same roof as that notorious person. 

“ But is she guilty, miss ? ” she gasped at the first 
pause in Lyle’s hurried recital. 

“ As guilty as you or I,” cried the girl indignantly. 
“ The real criminal is trying to shield himself behind 
his accusation of her. Had she been able to act as she 
intended, he would have been arrested to-day. How, 
God knows how it will end — what she will have to 
endure ! ” 

She dropped into a chair, and hid her face in her 
hands, trying to calm herself, trying to think what was 
best to do. 

Should she take up Jane’s task ? Should she go to 
Mount Urris with the first gleam of daylight and lay 
this statement before Sir George Ffolliott, the magis- 
trate. Then she remembered the papers had gone — 
that she had learned nothing of the purport of Jane’s 
last interview with Mickey Doolan. It was scarcely 
possible that Sir George would have a warrant issued 
against so important a personage as the County In- 
spector without very strong proofs. 

Her brain was in a whirl. So much had happened. 
Events had followed in such tragic and rapid succes- 
sion, it was little wonder that calm judgment was for a 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 283 

time suspended. Yet action of some sort was imper- 
ative, and she felt there was not an hour to lose. 

Jasper Standish knew that Jane Grapnell was here, 
knew that Lyle had been guilty of concealing her. He 
had stolen those papers, and would be aware of her in- 
tentions. His first act would certainly be to have Jane 
arrested. In her critical condition the result might be 
fatal. Lyle attributed unknown powers to the arms of 
the law, and saw feminine helplessness in its iron grasp 
— powerless. 

At last she lifted her head. “You have left Miss 
Callaghan all this time ! ” she exclaimed. 

“ She was sleeping soundly,” the nurse answered. 

“ Could we possibly get the housekeeper into this 
room ? ” asked Lyle again. 

“I think so, miss. She has recovered from the 
shock, and is conscious. We must be very careful, for 
fear of the wound bleeding, that is all.” 

“ I cannot leave her there,” said Lyle. “ The panel 
has been broken, and any one who knows the outlet 
into the grounds could get into the room that way.” 

“ I will just give a look at Miss Callaghan and then 
come back,” said the nurse. “ Between us we could 
get her down, I think.” 

“ I will go to her now,” said Lyle, “ and prepare 
her.” 

“ Take the wine with you, miss ; she will need it.” 

Jane was quite conscious, but very weak. Lyle gave 
her the wine and told her of her plan. It was to ride 
with all possible speed to Mount Urris and lay the case 
before Sir George, entreating him to have Jasper 
Standish arrested on suspicion. 


284 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“He never will — now,” said poor Jane. “ Those 
papers give the case bit by bit up to to-night. You 
cannot possibly put it as strongly or as clearly.” 

“ I have your confessions. Shall I take them ? ” 

“ Yes, miss, I forgot. They will be some help.” 

“ And to-night, Jane ? ” asked the girl eagerly. 
“ Did you learn nothing ? What about Mickey ? 
What about the shirt ? Have you got that ? ” 

“Yes, Miss Lyle. When I found I was being fol- 
lowed, and I rushed in here and you sent me down the 
stairs, my first thought was that. It’s in the box, 
as Mickey brought it, in the spare room where you 
were.” 

“ I never noticed it. Where ? ” 

“The corner between the dressing-table and the 
window. Take care of it, miss. Ik’s our only hope 
now.” 

“ Pll see about it at once. Now, Jane, one effort 
more. I can’t leave you here. I’m going to put you 
into the room where I was to sleep. You must get to 
bed, and keep as quiet as possible. I fear the police 
will be here before I return from Mount Urris. But 
surely they would not dream of moving you, ill and 
wounded as you are. I’ll send one of the stable men 
for Dr. Dan as soon as my horse is ready.” 

She looked at the clock. “ Four o’clock already ! 
How the time has flown ! It is quite dark still, but I 
must risk it. I daren’t delay. He would have to ride 
to the barracks. We may baffle him yet.” 

“ God help us, miss. I fear we’ll get the worst of 
it.” 

“ Here’s the nurse now,” said Lyle. “ Come, Jane 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 285 

— slowly — carefully. That's it. Lean on us, and don’t 
move that arm whatever you do.” 

“ What’s that by the panel ?” asked the nurse sud- 
denly. 

Lyle turned and looked, then gave a little heart- 
breken cry. It was the body of the little terrier, stiff 
and dead. She took it in her arms. The tears she had 
not shed for terror or weakness or pain burst from her 
eyes now as she saw the glazed eyes and motionless 
form of her brave little defender. 

“ If I owed you nothing else, Jasper Standish,” she 
cried fiercely, “l owe you this. A better life than 
your own.” 

She laid the brave little body gently down on the 
rug, then shook the tears from her eyes and turned 
away. There was something in her face now that 
might have made even Jasper Standish quail had he 
seen it. 


CHAPTER XXXII. 

Thkough the chill gray dawn, heavy with clouds, 
obscure with mist that the yet unrisen sun had not 
scattered, Lyle Orcheton rode as one rides when life or 
death is at stake. There could be no more halting, no 
more indecision. The gauntlet of defiance had been 
thrown and the lists entered — woman against man, 
patience against cunning, weakness against power. 
An unfair match, yet she did not quail. 

“ The right must win,” she told herself. The right 
— that only.” 

Oh, to be first in the field — to gain one powerful 
friend to her side ! But she dared not dwell too hope- 
fully on success, dared not flatter herself that her 
enemy was to be circumvented by a girPs wit. 

Mile after mile was passed. She would soon be there. 
She was almost in sight of the lodge gates. At that 
moment some one sprang out of the hedge she was 
passing, and her horse shied violently. Steadying him 
with the curb, she called out angrily to a ragged un- 
kempt figure to get out of her way. The uncouth 
object held up a warning hand. She drew rein. 

“ What do you want ? ” she asked. 

“ Miss darlin’, a wurrd. IPs the good luck as Pve 
seen ye. Are ye for his honor beyant at the big house ? ” 

“ Yes. Why do you ask ? ” 

“ Bekase 'twas some one else I was expect in\ May- 

286 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 287 

be ye know. Her as I mate promiscus wid the news 
ay matters.” 

“ Yes — yes ! ” she cried impatiently. 

“ Maybe ye're on her errand ? ” 

“Well?” 

“ Thin I sez this to yer ladyship. Him as we don't 
name got sight av me — Mickey Doolan, at yer sarvice, 
miss. An' sez he, “ Be off this same instant/ he sez, 
c to the oarracks and tell thim to sind over two men 
within an hour/ he sez.” 

“ How long ago was that ?” 

“Well, miss, not to be particular to a minnit, it 
might have been the matther av an hour or two. But 
divil a bit I went, miss. And niver a sight av a purlis 
officer will be at the Grey Lodge for my sinding.” 

“ God bless you ! ” cried Lyle convulsively. ‘ ‘ You've 
saved a life, perhaps, Mickey. You won't be sorry for 
this day, I promise you.” 

“ Sure an’ I knew yer ladyship would be the ginerous 
binefactyer. The dew av Heaven lighten yer purty 
face, an the swate good luck to ye. 

“ But if Mr. Standish ” 

“ Whisht, miss ! Don't be namin’ no names.” 

“ If Ae,” continued Lyle, “gets tired of waiting and 
goes himself ? ” 

“ Ah ! thin, there's a little matther av lameness be- 
twixt his horse an' meself ; not to mention, savin' yer 
ladyship's prisence, that 'twas the whisky bottle an' 
himself as were the best av company whin he sent me 
off. An' if I know inything av that same gintleman, 
it's not aisy partin' company av that sort. So just set 
yer mind aisy, miss, an' tell the good lady that same.” 


288 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ You’ve taken a weight off my mind. But I can’t 
waste another minute. Come round to-night and ask 
for me.” 

“ Faith an’ I will, yer ladyship, wid all the pleasure 
in life. God’s blessin’ go wid # ye, and may yer errand 
prosper.” 

She dashea on again, hope in her heart. If she was 
first, if Sir George would only believe her, if he would 
come and take Jane’s depositions, all might yet be 
saved. 

The lodge gate swung open — she was cantering up 
the drive. Another moment, and she was before the 
great house. There was no sign of life. The blinds 
were down, the doors closed. She dismounted and 
rang the bell. It sounded loudly on the stillness of the 
sleeping household. It seemed to Lyle as if no one 
would ever answer it. 

Again she rang. After what seemed endless wait- 
ing the chain rattled, bolts were withdrawn, and a 
sleepy-eyed, astonished man-servant opened the door. 

He showed her into the library, unclosed the shut- 
ters, and told her Sir George would be down “ immay- 
diate. ” 

The genial magistrate knew her but very slightly. 
He looked his astonishment when she told her errand, 
putting it as briefly and concisely as possible. 

“A warrant to arrest the County Inspector ? Im- 
possible, Miss Orcheton ! You must be making some 
grave mistake.” 

Patiently she went over her story ; but she was quite 
unable to convince Sir George of Jasper Standish’s 
guilt. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 289 

“ My dear young lady, do think of what you are say- 
ing/’ he urged. 4 4 Mr. Standish holds a responsible 
position. He is highly esteemed and respected ; and 
you accuse him of murdering a friend of his own— a 
harmless, kindly old gentleman, whose hospitality he 
had just shared ; of murdering him for the base motive 
of robbery. Pray, pray think of what an awful crime 
you accuse him. I cannot accede to your request with- 
out very much stronger evidence than you have laid 
before me. Your informant is a woman half-crazed by 
long brooding over a wrong her daughter suffered ” 

“ At this man’s hands ! ” interrupted Lyle. 

“ That, pardon me, is supposition, not proof. This 
woman is herself suspected of the crime of which she 
accuses him, and has been hiding from justice. The 
fact of her being concealed in your house. Miss Orche- 
ton, is a graver matter than you suppose. As witness 
she offers the evidence of a rascally ne’er-do-weel who 
has been playing the part of spy, and she confesses he 
has stolen and hidden all this time his chief proof — the 
blood-stained shirt. But that means very little. A 
scratch — a wound — would have occasioned the stain. 
As for the reason you give for such a crime — robbery — 
it is preposterous, my dear young lady ! ” 

“ You forget the money owing to Benjamin Myers, 
the Jew,” said Lyle, “ the money paid the night after 
the murder.” 

Sir George smiled. “ Ah ! Miss Orcheton, you 
should never have bothered your pretty head with 
crimes and penalties and legal affairs. You’ve let your 
feelings run away with you out of pure sympathy for 
your housekeeper. 1 am sorry I cannot offer you any 
*9 


290 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

assistance. She is under suspicion. She will have to 
be arrested and answer this charge at the proper time 
and place. If she is innocent, she has nothing to fear. 
The law will give her all possible assistance.” 

“ I beg your pardon,” said Lyle hotly ; “ that is just 
what the law will not do. As for having nothing to fear, 
how often innocent people suffer for legal mistakes and 
legal prejudices ! To be poor and friendless and accused, 
with a merciless enemy at the back of it all, is by no 
means an enviable or a safe position. The law has 
made mistakes often and often. It is slow to confess 
them, and slower to amend them. The law may make 
mistakes again. This woman is as innocent as I am 
myself, but she has to deal with a cunning and power- 
ful antagonist. I told you of the outrage last night. 
Had that shot killed her, who would have been respon- 
sible ? What could the law have done then to help or 
avenge her wrongs ? Mr. Standish intruded on my 
own private room, threatened me, and then fired at 
Mrs. Grapnell the moment she entered. No doubt he 
will say he did it accidentally. He can't prove it was 
in the execution of his duty, for she made no resist- 
ance ; he gave her no time. Besides, why did he not 
arrest her on the spot ? Instead he rushed away 
through the secret entrance, taking with him the very 
papers Mrs. Grapnell had prepared for you. ” 

Sir George began to feel uncomfortable. 

“ Do you wish to accuse Mr. Standish of trespass and 
violence then ?” he asked. “ That, of course, you can 
do, and he must answer the charge. But I refuse to 
grant a warrant for his arrest on your present proofs.” 

“ Then I will go to some one else.” 


291 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

Sir George smiled compassionately. 

“ My dear young lady, take my advice and let wiser 
heads than yours settle this business. Where is your 
father ? Why does he not appear in the matter ? 'It 
does credit to your warm heart and your kindness that 
you have taken it up so enthusiastically, but to come 
to me with such a story and expect me to act upon it — 
well, as I’ve said, I cannot do it. No magistrate would 
consent to what you ask.” 

Lyle looked at him helplessly. She had never ex- 
pected such a refusal. The situation was critical. 
Jasper Standish was a powerful foe, and she and Jane 
had shown their hand plainly at last. 

She seemed to have come to a deadlock. The 
magistrate’s refusal left Jasper free — gave him all the 
power, the time, the means for securing his own safety 
and for complicating matters with regard to Jane. 
The proofs on which she relied seemed less convincing 
after Sir George Ffolliott’s contemptuous disregard of 
their importance. Jane once imprisoned and arraigned 
as a criminal lost the strength of her position, and be- 
came merely a discredited or revengeful victim. 

Could the law be depended on to set her right ? 
Would it fathom suspicion and make every possible 
inquiry, and aid, not impede, her steps ? She had 
always appeared to hold it in wholesome dread. The 
memory of her outraged child, martyred by its strong 
powers, condemned to an awful death while her moral 
murderer got off scot free, was a memory that gave 
her scant belief in moral justice. 

To stand up in face of day and her fellows, and 
publicly accuse Jasper Standish of the bank manager’s 


292 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

murder was a very different thing from standing in the 
prisoner’s dock with her own innocence to prove and 
her own character to vindicate. 

The patience of years, the toil and struggle and en- 
durance that had stamped her face and hardened her 
nature, these were all to be of no effect. Her child 
had suffered indignity — she would have to suffer the 
same ; her child had known the taint of prison, the 
lash of shame, the horror of suspense, and she would 
know them too. By the same hand the mother and 
the child were led to the same fate — the one innocently, 
the other blindly. 

Death had saved the one. What would save the 
other ? 


CHAPTER XXXIII. 


Slowly and wearily Lyle Orcheton rode home. For 
the first time in her life she was in a position where 
youth and enthusiasm are made to look foolish — where 
stern logic faces an unproved conviction, where faith 
and trust meet with no encouragement. 

She did not like the position. The glow and fervor 
died out of her heart, and chill despondency reigned 
in their place. To her truth seemed plainly intelligi- 
ble. To eyes accustomed to stern facts it had not even 
the presentment of truth. 

She had no hope of saving Jane from arrest. 
Whether she could be removed or charged in her 
present condition remained to be seen. But no doubt, 
considering the gravity of that charge, she would not 
be allowed to remain at the Hermitage. A leaden 
weight seemed to rest on the girl’s heart. She threw 
the reins to the stableman, who was watching for her, 
and dismounting, went listlessly into the house. 

The servants were up. Every one was alert and ex- 
cited. Sir Anthony met her in the hall. “Why, 
Lyle,” he exclaimed, “ where hav? you been ?” 

She sat down wearily and told him. He listened 
with alternate indignation and horror to the accounts 
of the past night. The nurse had told him something, 
and Dr. Dan, who was still with Jane, had done his 

293 


294 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

best to unravel the skein of complications. Lyle’s 
story made all plain. 

Ilis anger was extreme. So were his regrets for the 
folly he had displayed in taking a place that had 
brought him nothing but trouble and misfortune since 
he had become its owner. Lyle had never seen him so 
angered and disturbed. 

When he heard of her errand to Sir George, he was 
still more incensed. 

That his daughter should mix herself up in an affair 
so scandalous, so disgraceful, so full of awful possibili- 
ties, drove him well-nigh distracted. He was violently 
thrust from peaceful hours, from his studious life, his 
placid enjoyment of all that soothed mind and body. 
Instead of it he found his house invaded by police, 
covered with notoriety, and scandalized by the accusa- 
tion of harboring a suspected murderess ! There seemed 
no vocabulary strong enough to express his senti- 
ments, and no sentiments forcible enough to con- 
vey his feelings. 

Lyle listened silently. No doubt she had been fool- 
ish and imprudent ; no doubt she had let her heart 
lead instead of allowing her head to judge. No two 
people looked at the same thing in the same way. It 
was hopeless to argue. She had done all she could do. 
The situation had turned from passivity to action ; now 
she could only stand aside and wait. 

* * * * * 

The time of waiting was not long. Events marched 
with startling rapidity, once given the impetus of dis- 
covery. Jasper Standish had marshaled facts for his 


295 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

own purpose ; the time was at hand for action, and he 
seized it. The arrest of Jane Grapnell and her appear- 
ance before the magistrate enabled him to present a 
case strong enough and suspicious enough to terrify 
Lyle, and to still further exasperate Sir Anthony. 

He proved that Jane had been up when he left the 
Bank House the night of the murder. He had heard 
Mr. Callaghan speaking to her. He had then gone to 
the manager’s room to inspect its security, and finally 
left him sitting there at work over his books. He 
stated that he had warned Mr. Callaghan of the inse- 
curity of that broken window, and of his intention to 
send one of his own men down on special guard. This 
had been done, and completed his evidence so far as 
the events of that night were concerned. 

Then came the evidence of Jane’s fellow-servant as 
to her secret ways and odd habits ; of Dr. Dan as to 
that night he had met her returning secretly after an 
absence she refused to explain ; the finding of the 
missing and marked money ; her flight and her con- 
cealment. The means by which Jasper Standish had 
traced her to the secret passage of the Hermitage were 
plausibly told. The discharge of his revolver was, he 
declared, an accident. The dog had flown at him, and 
his hand being on the trigger, the shot was fired with- 
out purpose or premeditation. 

This was a weak point on which Jane’s counsel 
scored. There seemed no reason for a revolver being 
in his hand. A helpless woman was no formidable 
opponent. 

Lyle, when her time came, gave very damaging 
evidence as to the events of that night in the turret, 


296 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

and Jasper felt that his case suffered considerably. 
Notwithstanding all this, however, the magistrate sent 
it for trial ; and poor Jane, ill and weak, was taken to 
the county jail to await that ordeal. Needless to 
say, the town reveled in all this. Every sort of story 
was rife, and Mickey Doolan would have been a hero 
could he have been found. 

Sir Anthony, annoyed and disturbed as he was, 
could not but yield to Lyle's passionate entreaties, and 
the best available counsel was procured for Jane. To 
him Lyle confided the housekeeper’s story — the be- 
trayal of her daughter, her meetings with Mickey, and 
his acquaintance with Jasper Standish's doings. Un- 
like Sir George, this gentleman thought the case 
against the Inspector a very strong one. Bit by bit he 
pieced it together like a puzzle map. 

“ If we could find that Jew, and ascertain that 
Standish was in difficulties, that he owed money, that 
the same was part or wholly paid on the night succeed- 
ing the murder, if amongst that money was a single 
piece of those ten he says were marked, we should have 
him. But, remember, Miss Orcheton, the greatest 
prudence and secrecy are imperative. I shall take 
care to have him watched, for fear he should escape 
before the trial. You see, it had become absolutely 
necessary to make some one responsible for the crime. 
He selected the weakest and most unpopular of 
those under suspicion. His case against Jane Grapnell 
is strong, but only strong enough to put her out of the 
way, so that he may gain time for his own security. 
She has to await her trial. He knows as well as I do 
that no jury would convict her on such evidence, but 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 297 

that the shadow of guilt will lurk about her, and in a 
measure render her powerless. I can see his game is 
to pretend she was an accomplice of this ne’er-do-weel 
Doolan, who has so mysteriously disappeared. He 
will make it appear that he broke the window, and got 
into the manager’s room, that they shared the plunder, 
and that he has gone off leaving her to bear the brunt 
of discovery. The doctor’s evidence was very damag- 
ing. The servants at your father’s also spoke of her 
secret goings out at night. We cannot be too careful 
not to show our hands. But, before the trial comes 
on, Jasper Standish will try to leave the country. He 
has gained his point. He has had some one arrested, 
accused, and half condemned by popular prejudice. 
He has thrown off suspicion from himself, and, with 
all due regard to my countrymen, Miss Orcheton, I 
should he sorry for this poor woman if she had to be 
tried by a jury from Bathfurley. Ho one seems to have 
a good word for her there.” 

“No,” said Lyle. “ She was a reserved, proud 
woman. She carried in her breast a terrible sorrow 
and a terrible purpose. That sort of woman does not 
readily make friends.” 

“ Well, rely upon me to do my best. The case prom- 
ises to be a big sensation, and I am sure I can prom- 
ise you that whoever suffers the penalty of the law, 
it won’t he Jane Grapnell,” 

This conversation took place in Dublin, where Sir 
Anthony and his daughter had gone. 

Nora remained at the Hermitage, still in the charge 
of the nurse. Brain fever had been averted, but the 
shock and grief through which she had passed had left 


298 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

her utterly prostrate, and Dr. Dan was seriously 
alarmed about her. She could not endure to hear 
Jasper Standish’s name mentioned ; it sent her into a 
paroxysm of nervous terror that ended in hysteria. 
So weak, so broken down was she, that Lyle almost de- 
spaired of her reason. 

Jasper had not confessed to their marriage, and Lyle 
made no mention of it. She waited for his assertion or 
claim, but neither were forthcoming. Sometimes she 
thought Nora must have fancied it ; but then the rec- 
ollection of that ring — of the night in the turret when 
Jasper Standish had corroborated the statement — would 
flash back to her mind, and she thought with mingled 
pity and dread of the awful fate that lay before the 
unfortunate girl. 

As soon as she had placed Jane’s confession in her 
counsel’s hands, and told him the whole facts that had 
come to her knowledge, she and Sir Anthony returned 
to Rathfurley. 

There w T as nothing more to be done until the time 
came for the trial, only she had the satisfaction of 
knowing that Jasper Standish would be watched, and 
that Mickey Doolan was being privately searched for. 
All that was in human power to do to save Jane she 
had done. Now she could only wait and hope. 

* * * * * 

Slowly, wearily, the days drifted by, and with un- 
tiring patience and unwearied devotion, Lyle watched 
and tended Nora. 

It nearly broke her heart to see the change in her. 
The bright and lovely girl, who had been so courted 


299 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

and admired, was now but a poor frail shadow, filled 
with nervous terrors, haunted by perpetual dread. Her 
face was drawn and anxious. * Instead of its old bloom, it 
wore the painful expression peculiar to troubled youth 
— an expression pitiful to see. 

“ Don’t worry about me, Lyle,” she said one day, 
when her friend had been urging her to come out for a 
little while — out to the sunshine and the spring’s bud- 
ding glories, and the new life waking in the sad old 
world — the life that is the promise of hope, and keeps 
hope alive in hearts that might otherwise despair. 

“ Don’t you worry,” she went on. t( I am not going 
to die ; no such luck. And I shall bear it. I have 
brought it all on myself. But I can never have faith 
in anything again. I have lost all 1 cared for, all but 
you ; and you will go too some day — it is only natural 
— and then I shall be alone, always. If I were a 
Catholic, I should enter a convent. Oh ! the peace 
and the comfort of such a retreat when life has shown 
its hollowness and worthlessness ! ” 

In vain Lyle tried to combat this depression, and 
rouse her to some hopefulness again. Dr. Dan advised 
change of scene — an entirely different life amid new 
surroundings ; but, until Jane’s trial was over, Lyle 
could not bring herself to leave Ireland. And nothing 
would induce Nora to go away without her. 

So the days came and went, long and hopeless and 
dreary, weighted with anxiety, destitute of all the mirth 
and brightness of careless girlhood. 

Jasper Standish never came now to the Hermitage. 
Why he did not claim Nora was a perpetual puzzle to 
Lyle. She feared some deeper scheme of villainy lay 


300 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

beneath his unaccountable silence. The mixture of 
bravado and far-sighted cunning with which he had 
presented his case, and turned the tables on Jane and 
herself, had proved he was no ordinary foe. Bravado 
would have to be met with stern purpose. Cunning 
with strategy. 

She was not allowed to see Jane, but Barry Roach, 
the solicitor engaged by her counsel, took cheering 
messages from time to time. He came frequently to 
the Hermitage, and held long consultations with Lyle. 
Sometimes he saw Nora ; but it had been agreed that 
the name of Jasper Standish was never to be mentioned 
before her. 

As the daughter of the murdered man, and the one 
person most interested in bringing the criminal to 
justice, he naturally took a great interest in the frail, 
suffering girl. It seemed to Lyle sometimes that the 
interest was growing into something warmer and deeper 
than mere business warranted. 

In any case, no one yet had been able to lift her 
mind from out its heavy darkness as could this genial, 
sympathetic solicitor. 

His cheery voice, his ugly, rugged face, always won 
a smile of welcome from her pale lips. He brought a 
breath of the outer world into her seclusion, and it was 
he who at last persuaded her to leave the house and 
walk, leaning on his strong arm, under the new green 
leafage of the trees. Lyle noted all, and her heart 
grew warm with gratitude towards him. He was so 
manly, so strong, so full of kindly thought and sym- 
pathy, that sometimes she wondered why he had taken 
up a profession that certainly was not calculated to 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 301 

give any man a great belief in the virtues of his 
fellows. 

However, the fact of his interest in Nora, and of his 
power to rouse her from her long despondent attitude 
to all in and about her life, was enough at present. 
The sapling was only bent, not broken. The flower 
crushed by rough hailstones may still revive, and lift 
its braised beauty in the warmth of sunlight. She 
hoped and prayed that that first fierce, unworthy pas- 
sion had burned itself out — that the very violence of her 
grief had exhausted its sources. It is not natural to 
the young to sorrow long. If the sorrow is violent, so 
also is the reaction. 

Watching the girl’s languid footsteps pacing to and 
fro under the trees, noting the kindly face bent down 
to her, the strong yet gentle arm supporting her, Lyle 
smiled, half sadly, half hopefully. 

“ Who knows?” she said, and sighed — and yet 
looked again and smiled. “ Who knows ?” 

Perhaps she thought of possible consolation in time 
to come. 


CHAPTER XXXIV. 


Mrs. O’Neil, returning from a visit to the Riviera, 
was greeted by the news of recent events. She drove 
over to the Hermitage at once, and saw Lyle and heard 
Jane’s story. 

“ Then she is Hester’s mother ? Why did she deny 
it ? If she had told me her suspicions, I might have 
helped her.” 

“ I think,” said Lyle, “she had determined on find- 
ing out this man’s guilt in her own way. Naturally 
she wished to hide her story. It would have been an 
added shame had it been made public.” 

“ Do you remember that afternoon when I questioned 
her, and her denial ? Oh ! if she had only confessed, 
I would have been her friend through all. Poor 
Hester ! poor pretty child ! What an awful fate ! ” 

Her eyes filled with tears. “ I shall always reproach 
myself. I ought to have looked after her better. But 
there was something of the mother’s reserve in her. 
One never seemed to get sight into her heart.” 

“ This fiend managed it, at all events.” 

“ The greater his sin,” exclaimed Mrs. O’Neil with 
passion. “Oh ! Lyle, I can’t bear to think of it. A 
prison grave, and that bright, lovely creature. No 
wonder it broke her mother’s heart.” 

3°2 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 303 

“Her courage has been wonderful,” said Lyle sadly ; 
“ but now she has to face a new tragedy.” 

“ And Nora — how is she ? May I see her ?” 

“You will find her awfully changed. Sorrow has 
followed sorrow, and shock, shock. She is quite 
broken down.” 

“I must try and cheer her up. Dear, dear ! how 
much has happened ! She won't have to appear at the 
trial, Lyle ?” 

“ Thank goodness, no. She could never face such 
an ordeal.” 

“My dear, you’ll be hating Ireland after this. 
There’s been nothing but misfortunes for you since you 
came here. They always said the Hermitage was an 
unlucky house.” 

Lyle’s lip quivered. She turned away. 

“ It was I who persuaded my father to take it,” she 
said, “and assuredly some malignant fate has dogged 
our footsteps ever since. When I think that only a 
year ago we were two happy, ignorant girls, dreaming 
as girls dream, hoping as girls hope, and now ” 

“ Don’t cry, dear, don’t. Remember my philosophy. 
Things will get better. The clouds are bound to roll 
away in time. Come, Lyle, show a brave face, and 
trouble will slink away. You are young. You have 
a future. I have only a past. But I can laugh still. 

I won’t allow that life is over, even when one’s heart 
is almost broken.” 

“ That is your happ) temperament,” said Lyle. 

“Perhaps. But take me to see Nora now. Oh! 
what a fool I was to encourage that man’s attentions ! 
If I had only dreamed ” 


304 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

The tears rose to her kindly eyes. She followed 
Lyle in silence. 

***** 

It was the first day of the trial of Jane Grapnell, 
accused of the murder of Thomas Callaghan, bank 
manager of Rathfurley. 

The crucial hour had come at last. The long sus- 
pense was over. A sad, worn woman faced that 
crowded court, those curious, excited, unsympathetic 
faces, and, looking from them to the judge in his 
stately robes, the jurymen in whose hands lay her fate, 
uttered calmly and distinctly her denial of the charge 

“Not Guilty.” 

A momentary silence followed. Then came a rustle 
of papers, a flutter of leaves, as reporters and barristers 
settled themselves to business. The counsel for the 
prosecution rose to open the case, and amidst breath- 
less silence laid his facts before the court. 

He commenced by saying that the prisoner was 
charged with the murder of Mr. Thomas Callaghan, of 
Rathfurley, on the night of Nov. — th, 188 — . 

He thought that the evidence would clearly show 
the murder had not been premeditated, but that the 
motive of the accused was robbery, and discovery had 
led to a violent assault that resulted in death. The 
accusation as made before the magistrate’s court was 
then detailed and the same witnesses called upon. 

Of these, Jasper Standish was the principal. He 
looked pale and nervous. His eyes were bloodshot, 
and his trembling lips and the tremor of his hands told 
a tale of dissipation. He never looked at the prisoner 
while giving his evidence, which was identical with 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 305 

what he had previously sworn before the magistrate. 
He was cross-examined by Jane’s counsel, and various 
weak points scored against him. 

Then came Dr. Dan with his statement of Jane’s un- 
explained absence, and the servant’s account of Mickey 
Doolan hanging about the place to get speech with 
her. 

Lyle was called upon last, and her coolness and 
straightforwardness made a great impression. Her ac- 
count of the incidents in the turret room, the revolver, 
and the flight of Jasper Standish, who stated he had 
come there to arrest Jane, utterly confuted the testi- 
money of the Inspector himself. 

He had made a great blunder. He had subpoenaed 
her as witness on his side, to prevent her giving evi- 
dence for the defense. But her evidence went so dead 
against his story that it only weakened his case. In 
vain the prosecution tried to shake her statements, to 
confuse or bewilder her. They made the most of 
Jane’s concealment being known to her, of the setting 
her “ ferocious” dog at the Inspector, of her attempts 
to prejudice the magistrate. But with all this they 
could not do away with the impression she had made. 
The case against the accused ended for that day, leav- 
ing every one in a state of indecision as to what the 
result would be. 

Dr. Dan, Sir Anthony, and Lyle were staying at the 
hotel. Nora had not been required, and remained be- 
hind at the Hermitage, where Lyle had promised to 
telegraph accounts of the trial each day. 

There was a long and serious consultation that night 
over the forthcoming complications. Lyle and her 
20 


306 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

counsel had almost won Sir Anthony over to their 
belief in Jasper Standish’s guilt. Dr. Dan remained 
severely neutral. The man had been his friend, had 
always shown himself liberal, convivial, good-hearted. 
It seemed impossible he could have committed a crime 
so dastardly. 

Till long into the night they sat and talked it over, 
sometimes hopeful, sometimes despondent. When 
Lyle rose at last and bade them good-night, the bar- 
rister looked earnestly at her troubled face. 

“ I can work it over the second day,” he said, “ but 
’pon my faith, Miss Orcheton, it’s a bad look-out for us 
if we can’t lay hands on that young scamp Mickey 
Doolan by the morning of the third.” 

Jasper Standish left Dublin by the last train that 
night. He was ignorant of the fact that he was being 
watched, or that the small, inoffensive-looking in- 
dividual who had got into the next compartment had 
been following his movements for many weeks with 
great interest. 

When he reached the little station, he got into a car 
and drove to his house. He had a purpose in view. 
Nora was alone at the Hermitage now. He had re- 
solved to see her. 

The detective called another car. There was a brief 
colloquy, and a curious shock-headed individual, with 
a slouched hat almost concealing his features, under- 
took the job of keeping the foremost car in sight, witli 
suspicious alacrity. 

During the drive there was a good deal of conversa- 
tion between the “jarvey”and his fare. It showed 
that this was not their first meeting, and the boy 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 307 

displayed a powerful interest in the events of the 
trial. 

They drove cautiously, not wishing the leading vehi- 
cle to discover they were following. At a special place 
the second car drew up, and the fare got down. The 
driver fastened his horse to a post, and gave him his 
nose-bag. Then the two figures left the road and 
entered a wood, through which twisted a narrow little 
foot-track evidently well known to them. It ended in 
sight of the County Inspector’s house. Arrived there, 
the two figures crouched in the shadow of the bushes 
and waited silently for events. 

“ There’s the light, sor,” whispered one of the 
watchers. “ Ah ! bad cess to that ground glass av the 
windy panes. ’Tis divil a sight av inything one gets. 
I’ve tried it often.” 

“ Stop here till I return,” said the other. And he 
glided cautiously forward to where a little patch of 
light shone through the window on to the ragged grass 
that was by courtesy styled the lawn. 

But as the boy had said the glass baffled inspection. 
As he stood there, however, the man suddenly noticed 
that the window was not perfectly closed at the top. 
This left a tiny aperture between the window and the 
sill, and by kneeling down so that his eyes were level 
with the opening he could see a certain portion of the 
room. 

The Inspector must have been unusually preoccupied 
not to have noticed this aperture. When the detective 
caught sight of him within the room he was occu- 
pied in examining some papers that he had taken ap- 
parently from an open drawer. These he tore up one 


308 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

by one, then approached the fireplace and threw the 
fragments among the ashes. The fire had gone out, 
but apparently that did not concern him. The old 
woman could not read. She would light the fire next 
morning with these scraps of paper. 

He next went to a cupboard and took out a bottle 
and glass. He poured out nearly a tumblerful of raw 
spirit, and drank it off without troubling to adulterate 
it with water. Then he commenced to talk. His 
words were rapid and incoherent, and the listener 
could not make sense out of them. Sometimes he 
laughed — the meaningless laughter of the inebriate. 
It was evident that the strong spirit was affecting him. 

He put his revolver in his pocket, locked the drawer 
from which he had taken the papers, and then eyed 
the bottle once more as if doubtful whether to test its 
soothing properties. Finally he locked it up. 

“ Better not,” he muttered. “I’ve a stiff lot of 
business before me. I must keep a steady hand and 
brain.” 

Seeing that he was about to leave the house, the 
detective crept quietly back to the shelter of the 
bushes. He whispered a warning to his companion, 
and the two again followed on his track as he took a 
short cut across the intervening grounds that lay 
between the Lodge and the Hermitage. 

“He’s for the big house,” whispered the carman. 
“ Sure an’ what’s that for ? Isn’t ivery one av the 
family away ? What does he want there at all, at 
all?” 

Jasper made a sudden turn towards the river. Here 
he paused, and they watched him light a dark lantern. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 309 

“ It’s the cave he’s goin’ to. Saints and angels, 
what’s takin’ him there ?” 

“ What cave ? ” asked the detective. 

“The Holy Hermit’s — God rest his sowl. It’s there 
the saycret way is where he followed the lady, as came 
out in the first trial. How, glory be, what are we to 
do wid ourselves, sor ? I’d not be afther followin’ him 
through that same tunnel av a place, not for a hundred 
pounds I wouldn’t. He’s a desprit man is Mister In- 
spector, and handy wid his pistol shots too ! ” 

“ I shall follow him,” said the detective. “ I have 
a revolver. You needn’t fear.” 

“Ah ! but it’s meself has no great likings for bullets 
flyin’ about me head. Axin’ yer pardon, sir, couldn’t 
ye be lavin’ me to wait convaynient here till the matter’s 
settled between yer two selves comfortable ? ” 

“ Ho, you must come too,” said the officer sternly. 
“I may need you as a witness, as well as help. Rec- 
ollect, you’re under the orders of the law.” 

“ Sure an’ yer honor knows I’ve bin like wax in yer 
hands iver since you found me out, an’ mighty clever 
you was about that same, an’ it’s a great man you’ll be. 
I’m thinkin’. So lade the way, yer honor, an’ it’s 
Mickey Doolan won’t be far off, seein’ as we’re the best 
av frinds, an’ no occasion in life to quarrel over a small 
matter av this sort.” 

“ It’s dark as pitch : I can’t see the light,” whispered 
the detective presently, as they groped their way 
through the tunnel, which seemed to slope up- 
wards. 

“ He’s got a long start av us. Whisht ! I hear his 
steps.” 


310 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

They paused and listened. They could hear a 
heavy tread echoing through the distant passage. 

Very slowly, very cautiously they crept on till they 
came to a stairway. Here they again paused to listen. 
There was no sound of footsteps now, but a faint flicker 
of light stole down from above, and showed the steep 
stone stairs mounting upwards like a ladder. Not 
daring to move or speak, they crouched in the dark- 
ness and heard the sound of heavy blows on wood. 
The panel had been boarded up by Sir Anthony’s orders, 
and the old mode of entrance rendered impossible. No 
one slept at this side of the house, as Jasper had taken 
care to assure himself. 

He succeeded at last in forcing an entrance, and 
taking a lantern, disappeared into the turret room. 
Softly and slowly the detective and Mickey followed. 
They caught sight of him as he flashed the lantern 
cautiously towards the stairs that led into the corridor. 

Not till the light vanished did they venture to creep 
into the room. There was a faint gleam of moonlight 
through the window, and by its light they managed to 
grope their way across to the door. The staircase was 
dark, but the detective made cautious progress step by 
step until he reached the next corridor. 

A whisper from Mickey stayed his feet, and both 
listened intently. Afar off in the silence of the night 
came a woman’s cry of terror. They followed its di- 
rection. Door after door they passed. All were shut, 
all was silent within. 

Another flight of stairs, another corridor. Again 
they listened. 

A sound of voices guided them. They reached a 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 311 

door. A light streamed from beneath. The sound of 
a voice low and threatening reached them. They re- 
mained without — motionless, intently listening. The 
detective’s hand stole forward. He turned the handle 
softly. It was evidently locked within. The tones of 
the voice rose to a louder key. 

“I tell you I must have the money. You know 
where Sir Anthony keeps it. You must fetch it.” 

A woman’s voice, faint with terror, pleaded. It was 
drowned by brutal oaths. 

“ Tell me the place, and I’ll fetch it myself. There’s 
no time to lose. I want to get off before daybreak. 
You and your friend, curse her, have made it too hot 
for me. Now, are you going to do what I ask ? ” 

“ Jasper, I cannot : I’d sooner die.” 

“ Then tell me where’s the safe ? I’ve no time to 
hunt the house. Library or dressing-room ? ” 

“Dressing-room,” she said faintly. 

“ Which way ? ” 

“ Through that door, into the next room, across the 
corridor, and the last on the right-hand side.” 

“You’re not tricking me ? Your life shall answer 
for it if you are. ” 

“ It is the truth.” 

Coldly, despairingly, the words fell. It was for this 
she had made shipwreck of youth’s beauty and hope — 
for the sake of a ruthless villain, who had neither 
honor nor heart ; who had never loved her, who had 
only made her a tool to serve his purpose, and screen 
his crimes. 

She cowered back among the pillows, white as they. 
She heard his brutal laugh as he turned to the door, 


312 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

and the sound of his retreating steps fell upon her 
heart as earth falls upon a closed coffin. With a shud- 
der she closed her eyes. She was near fainting with 
terror, but something seemed to control her failing 
senses, and she strove to overcome that deadly weak- 
ness. 

At that moment a low tap came at the door, and a 
voice spoke. 

“ Open in the name of the law ! ” it said. “ I am in 
pursuit of a thief. He was here a moment ago.” 

She sat up in bed too frightened to speak. A second 
demand followed the first. Still she was silent. 

Give him up ? See him humiliated, captured in the 
act of robbery ? She could not do it. He was her 
husband. She had loved him blindly, devotedly. She 
must make one effort to save him. 

“ Wait there,” she cried boldly. “ I am in bed. I 
will open the door in a minute.” 

Then she sprang out of bed, snatched up a dressing- 
gown, and sped like the wind across the intervening 
rooms. She caught him as he was about to force the 
little safe where Sir Anthony kept such cash and 
securities as he did not care to put in the bank. 

“Fly, Jasper!” she cried entreatingly. “The 
police are here. They have tracked you.” 

He turned his white face to her — the face of a cow- 
ard and criminal. She shuddered at its awful ferocity 
and its yet more awful fear. 

“ Go !” she implored. “ Another moment and you 
will be too late. Listen ! ” 

A sharp, imperative rap echoed from the room she 
had left. He saw there was no time to lose. 


3i3 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ Keep them back, or there’ll be murder,” he 
said with a brutal laugh. Then he flung open the 
door of the room and concealed himself behind the 
wide chintz draperies of the bed. She saw what 
he meant, and flew back to admit the detective and 
Mickey. 

“ You were a long time,” he said suspiciously. 

“ I had to find my dressing-gown ; but a safe takes 
a long time to open.” 

“ Is that the way ? ” 

“ Yes,” she said breathlessly. 

They hurried on. She waited, her heart beating 
wildly. She knew Jasper’s plan now. 

It happened as he had supposed. They saw the 
lantern and the skeleton keys, the open door, and ran 
down the stairs, taking the lantern with them. Jasper 
rushed from his hiding-place, through Nora’s room, 
and up the staircase to the turret. He locked the 
door behind him, and with all speed made for the 
secret passage, dashed down it, through the tunnel, 
across the grounds, back to the Lodge and the stable 
where his horse stood ready saddled. 

He led it out, mounted, and while the detective and 
Mickey were hunting and searching the great rooms 
and passages of the Hermitage he was off and away 
across country, flying for his life. 

He knew his horse. Nothing to be hired or borrowed 
could match it for speed and endurance. His plans 
had long been laid for such an emergency. He had a 
fair start, and yet he urged the spirited animal with 
voice and spur. It did not like such treatment, and 
showed signs of temper. 


314 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

Jasper was by this time utterly incapable of self- 
control. 

Semi-intoxicated, maddened with rage, and pursued 
by a sudden strange frenzy that led him to fancy pur- 
suit was close at hand, he struck the animal brutally 
with his whip. It reared and nearly unseated him, 
then sprang like an arrow from a bow across the long 
level road. The thunder of its hoofs seemed to its 
rider’s ears like the sound of other hoofs gaining on 
him. The blood raced madly through his veins and 
coursed through his brain. It was more mania than 
drunkenness that now possessed him. 

Faster and faster they flew. 

The moon’s pale gleam made the hedgerows like one 
continuous thread, the stars whirled giddily above him, 
sky and earth and shadowy trees turned into a blurred 
mist. The foam from the horse’s nostrils lay like flakes 
of snow tossed here and there, its sides were red and 
torn where the cruel spurs still pressed. 

On, still on, he urged the half-maddened creature. 
Across country now, taking fence after fence in flying 
leaps that seemed to race and touch the clouds, and 
meet a hundred other strange and rushing objects. 
On, still on, with the thundering hoofs behind and the 
paling sky above. On, till with a wild cheer he called 
on earth and heaven both to join in that mad flight, 
and cheat pursuit that meant the hangman’s rope about 
his neck. 

On, till with a plunge, a gasp, a crash of broken bars 
came sudden darkness, and horse and rider lay bleeding 
and unconscious side by side. 


CHAPTER XXXV. 


After a prolonged search the detective came sud- 
denly to the conclusion that Jasper had doubled on 
them and escaped. Groping about in dark rooms and 
unknown passages was not lively work. He called to 
Mickey, and told him his conviction. 

“ I’ll go back,” he added, “to the Lodge. We may 
catch him there, though I doubt it. He’s had too 
good a start.” 

Mickey’s explanations and suggestions were plentiful, 
but the detective was in an ill-humor, and paid scant 
attention. If it had occurred to his mind that Xora 
had any interest in the man, or could have connived 
at his escape, he would have questioned her. As it 
was, he left the Hermitage by the proper entrance, and 
made his way to the Gray Lodge as speedily as the 
darkness permitted. 

When they reached it, he paused a moment won- 
dering whether to effect an entrance without ceremony, 
or rouse the servant and ask for Jasper. Mickey saved 
him the trouble of a decision by pushing up the window 
of Jasper’s little office, and flashing the light of the 
lantern around. It was dark and deserted. 

The boy sprang in, and the detective followed. His 
eager glance took in every detail of the room. Then, 
with sudden remembrance of its occupant’s recent em- 

3i5 


3x6 The Sin oJ Jasper Standish. 

ploymeut, he went to the fireplace and collected all the 
torn papers he had thrown there. 

The drawers of the writing-table were locked. He 
did not trouble to force them. It was hardly likely the 
astute Inspector would have left incriminating evidence 
behind him. 

They then proceeded to search the house, terrifying 
the old woman, who was asleep in the kitchen, and 
who could or would tell them nothing of her master’s 
affairs. His bed had not been disturbed, but there 
was nothing in his room to show intention of flight. 

After a brief search, they next proceeded to the 
stables. Mickey knew both the horses, and drew con- 
clusions. 

“ Sure an’ he’s gone, yer honor, safe enough,” he 
exclaimed. “An’ ’tis Lightnin’ Flash he’s taken. 
An’ devil a baste this side the county can bate him for 
speed. We might as well be gettin’ to our beds, sor, 
now. It’s little chance we have av seein’ anythin’ but 
a clean pair av heels.” 

“ You’re sure the two horses were here to-day ?” 

“ This same blessed morning, sor, they was there, 
the pair av thim ; an’ the master away the whole av the 
day. Sorra a sowl in the place as would dare to touch 
thim. But there’s Dan somewhere about. In the loft, 
maybe. We might be axin’ him a question as to the 
ways av it.” 

The detective smiled contemptuously. “ The ways 
av it ” were plain enough. “ He’s got off, no doubt,” 
he said. “ The question is whether to pursue him, or 
wait till the morning and set the wires to work.” 

“ If it’s a race yer honor’s manin’, I’m yer man,” 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 317 

said Mickey joyfully. “Sure an’ I’d take the little 
mare as soon as look at her, an’ divil a bit av saddle or 
stirrup I’m wantin’.” 

The man eyed him doubtfully. “ How are we to 
know which road he’s taken?” he said. “Besides, 
Mickey, it’s a desperate man you’re after. He’s taken 
life before now.” 

“ Yer honor might give me that bit av a pistol yer 
havin’ so handy, an’ ’twill be shot for shot av he’s after 
try in’ that game wid me. You’ll not be needin’ it 
yerself, an’ ye can take the car an’ drive into the town, 
an’ be settin’ thim wires to work as ye was spakin’ av, 
as soon as the day breaks. Faith, it’s not far off that 
same. Am I to go, yer honor ? ” 

“Yes, but be careful. He’s likely to make for the 
coast. He’ll get off in some little vessel. He’d know 
the liners and steamers would be searched.” 

“ Faith, an’ I’ll be careful. It’s none too fond av 
that gintleman I am : I give ye me wurrd av that.” 

“ Track him, but don’t come up with him,” con- 
tinued the detective. “ Wire me if you have news, 
and go to the nearest police station and inform them 
this man is under arrest for murder. You’ll be no use 
single-handed.” 

Mickey promised joyfully, then saddled the little 
mare, and rode off on the track of his enemy. 

“ Mind,” came the last warning, “ the day after to- 
morrow, the third day of the trial, you’re to report 
yourself. You’ll be wanted as witness.” 

“Troth an’ I’m not likely to forget it! It’s long 
enough I’ve been waiting my turn. Begorra, whin I 
get it an’ say me say in the open court, it’s the black 


3 1 8 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

face av him will be lookin’ as white as a pennortli av 
curds in a sweep’s fist ! ” 

And with a wild “ hurroo ” to the astonished chest- 
nut, he dashed off along the road that Jasper Standish 
had taken. 

***** 

The second day of the trial was of more importance 
to all concerned than the first. 

Jane Grapnell looked paler and more anxious as she 
entered the dock, and her eyes turned to where Lyle 
was seated beside Sir Anthony, as if she sought some 
reassuring sign. Lyle smiled in sympathetic recogni- 
tion of that anxious inquiry. But her own mind was 
far from easy. 

Jane's counsel opened his case with a long introduc- 
tion, and then proceeded to call witnesses. He seemed 
to play into the hands of the prosecution and to force 
prolonged cross-examination on every little point. The 
court adjourned for lunch. It was impossible the case 
could arrive at summing-up point that day. 

In the afternoon the defense called up Jasper Stan- 
dish for cross-examination. After an interval it was 
announced that that important witness was not in 
court. He had been telegraphed for, and an answer 
had just come to hand. 

He was not at Rathfurley. 

Affairs came to a standstill. There was a hurried 
consultation of barristers, solicitors, and counsel. The 
defense suggested adjournment until the missing wit- 
ness was discovered. And so ended the proceedings of 
the second day. 

When Lyle returned to the hot-el, she was informed 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 319 

that a lady was awaiting her in her sitting-room. She 
ran hastily up the stairs, and found Nora there. One 
look at the agitated face told her something had oc- 
curred. 

“ What is it ? ” she asked breathlessly. 

“ Jasper — is he here ? Did he appear to-day ? ” 

“ No/’ said Lyle. “ He was called upon, but no one 
knew where he was. Has anything happened, Nora ? 
Do you ” 

“ Yes ; I know something. He came to the house 
last night, Lyle, by the secret way. I woke up to find 
him in my room. He wanted money ; he threatened 
to kill me if I would not tell him where Sir Anthony 
kept his. I had to tell him, Lyle.” 

“ Nora ! Oh ! my poor dear.” 

“ Tha.t isn’t all. He had scarcely left me when 
there came a knocking at the door. The police had 
tracked him, and demanded admission. Lyle, I could 
not help it. I rushed down and warned him. I 
helped him to escape.” 

She wrung her hands helplessly. The tears were 
streaming down her face. 

“ An.d he got off ?” asked Lyle. 

“I don’t know. I heard no more. The officer 
searched the house, and not finding him, left. I lay 
awake all night in terror. As soon as the servants 
were up, I rose. The safe had not been touched, so 
that last crime was spared him. But your room had 
been broken open, Lyle.” 

“ That fatal turret ? ” 

“Yes. The new panel was smashed to pieces. I 
told the servants to send to the barracks, and when the 


320 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

man came I explained that the house had been broken 
into, and begged that some one might be left to guard 
it while I came here to tell Sir Anthony. There is a 
policeman there now. The Irish servants were terrified 
out of their wits. Lyle, what has happened to Jasper ? 
Has no one heard anything ? ” 

“ I believe not. I am expecting Mr. Roach and Mr. 
Galloway, Jane’s counsel, this evening. They may 
have heard. It’s very extraordinary, Nora. Why has 
he run off like this ? ” 

“ He must have been watched. The other side know 
the story. He said that you and Jane had made the 
place too hot for him, and he was going abroad. Oh, 
Lyle, he looked so awful, and he was half mad with 
drink ! ” 

She hid her face in her shuddering hands. In her 
heart Lyle rejoiced. Disillusion might mean salvation. 

She trembled with excitement. This was no mean 
triumph. She had befriended Jane to good purpose, 
and between them they had forced their adversary’s 
hand. Surely now the prosecution would fail, Jane’s 
innocence be declared, and Jasper Standish would 
stand in the dock where he had placed a helpless 
woman. 

It was terrible for Nora, but then no one knew that 
fatal secret. It might never be known. 

She tried to soothe the poor girl, and took her to 
her bedroom to remove her hat and cloak, and per- 
suaded her to lie down and rest. Then she returned 
to see if Sir Anthony had yet come in. He was there 
with Barry Roach, and was occupied in reading a tele- 
gram. Lyle shook hands with the solicitor. 


321 


The Sin of Jasper Standish, 

“ I have strange news,” she said eagerly. u Nora is 
here. She says that this mau, Jasper Standish, broke 
into the house last night and attempted to rob my 
father’s, safe.” 

Sir Anthony let the telegram drop. “What?” he 
exclaimed. 

“ He came to rob you previous to leaving the coun- 
try,” continued Lyle. “ He was interrupted by the 
police, but escaped. She knows nothing more. Now, 
father, will you believe me ? If he were not guilty, 
would he have acted like this ?” 

The old baronet took her hand and pressed it gently. 
“ Forgive me, my dear. I was an obstinate old fool. 
You were right all the time. But he has escaped 
justice, even as he escaped suspicion. Read that.” 

She took the flimsy paper which he handed to her, 
and read as follows : — 

(t Standish found dead — thrown from horse. Body 
at police station. Middleton. Wire instructions. 

“ Doola-n.” 

Lyle gave a faint cry. “ Dead ! And Mickey sent 
this ? Mickey found him ? ” 

“ Yes. The young rascal has been acting amateur 
detective under the guidance of James Marlitt, a man 
we had from Scotland Yard. Marlitt wires that he 
traced Standish to the Hermitage, lost him, found be 
had taken a fleet horse and gone off. This boy went 
in pursuit. You see what he says. 

“ Dead ! ” faltered Lyle once more. “ With all his 
sins, all his crimes— -oh ! thank God, Nora is safe at 
last.” 


21 


322 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

“ Nora ? Why, what has she to do with it ? 99 ex- 
claimed Sir Anthony. 

“ She was married secretly to Jasper Standish. He 
persuaded her to it in order that she might not be a 
witness against him. It has nearly killed her since 
she found out his villainy.” 

“ My God ! how awful ! What possessed the girl 

if 

“ It is all over and done with now,” said Lyle, steal- 
ing a glance of sympathy at the pale face of Barry 
Roach. “ Don’t blame her, dad. He was a very fas- 
cinating man. Nora was so young, and quite at his 
mercy. Besides,” she added hurriedly, “ it was no sort 
of a marriage. He neither claimed nor acknowledged 
it. She told me, and I brought her home.” 

“ That was when she fell ill ? ” 

“ Yes,” said Lyle. 

“Poor girl ! Poor deluded child ! Still, she might 
have told you, Lyle.” 

“ Dear father, f mights 9 and 4 ifs ’ won’t alter things 
now. Thank God that death has spared her further 
horrors. She will recover ; she will forget. It has 
been an awful experience.” 

The rugged, kindly face of the solicitor told of his 
sympathy with such an experience, but he said nothing. 
Lyle understood his silence, and changed the subject 
skilfully. Presently, when she had ordered tea, she 
went up to Nora. 

Very gently she told her the news of Jasper’s death. 
The girl took it with strange calmness. She had 
suffered so much, and borne so much, that her powers 
of endurance had reached a climax. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 323 

“ He has been spared a worse fate, and I a worse 
shame,” she said. 

Then she covered her face with trembling hands, and 
Lyle saw her lips move. That worthless life was not 
worth a girl’s forgiving prayer, but as her gentle par- 
don followed it to another world, something of peace 
and rest fell on the aching heart that breathed it. 

She looked up at last. In spite of the change of 
these last awful weeks, it seemed to Lyle that her face 
wore a look* which seemed to belong to the old girlish 
days. Involuntarily her arms went round her in the 
way that had belonged to those old days also. 

“You have come back to me,” she said softly ; “ and 
I shall never fail you, Nora.” 

* * * * * 

The last day of Jane Grapnell’s trial was a day to be 
long remembered in the county ; a day to make journal- 
ists rejoice, and be as rain after long draught to the 
gossips’ tongues ; a day the like of which had never 
been known since Barney O’Gorman had roasted his 
grandmother as a witch in a sudden fit of pious hilarity ; 
the end had been somewhat disastrous for the grand- 
mother — and Barney. 

There was a stir, an excitement, about the very open- 
ing of the court. The crowd that tried for admission 
trebled its previous number. 

Lyle’s face was radiant, her father’s very grave. 
The defending counsel, Mr. Galloway, looked serenely 
triumphant. The proceedings to-day meant a big sen- 
sation, and no small fame for himself. Jane, who 
knew nothing of what had transpired, yet gathered 
hope from her first glance at her staunch friend. 


324 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

After the usual preliminaries, Mr. Galloway called 
his first witness, Mickey Doolan. Jane started and 
changed color as she heard the name, and her eyes 
looked half -fearfully, half-do ubtf ully, to the little box 
where the witnesses appeared. Yes, there was no 
doubt about it : the shock head, the impish face, the 
furtive glance — it was Mickey. He had been found. 
Her case was sure now. 

Her heart throbbed so violently that she could 
scarcely stand as she thought of all that his discovery 
and his evidence meant. Her brain whirled dizzily, 
and for a moment the faces and figures swam mistily 
before her eyes. With a great effort she recovered 
herself, and sank into the seat provided for her. Then, 
with tear-filled eyes and straining ears, she gave her 
attention to the proceedings of the court. 

As no pen could do justice to Mickey’s phraseology, 
his quaint terms of speech, and his general content 
with himself in the position of a celebrity, it is suffi- 
cient to say here that his testimony to Jane’s innocence 
was conclusive. 

He told the story of their first meeting, of the odd 
bargain between them, and how he had since watched 
the Square doings of Mister Inspector Standish.” 

Then came the question as to that morning after the 
bank manager’s murder, and his discovery of the blood- 
stained shirt, which now semi-historical garment was 
at last displayed in court, and created the expected 
sensation. 

Step by step the story went on, and plainer grew the 
proofs that whoever was guilty it could not be Jane 
Grapnell. 


325 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

A fierce fire of cross-examination brought out Mickey 
at his best. If he was a spy, well, what was the “ gin- 
tleman from Scotland Yard ? ” If one statement was 
to be discredited, why not the other ? 

The court roared, the prosecution looked foolish, 
and long before the brilliant and forcible summing-up 
of the defence, the verdict was a foregone conclusion. 

Pale, and calm, and resolute, Jane Grapnell sat there 
and heard it all. Her heart swelled with gratitude 
and triumph. The battle had not been to the strong, 
nor the race to the swift. Endurance and patience 
and courage had fought their way through every diffi- 
culty. Her child’s wrongs were at last avenged ! 

* * # * * 

The summing-up of the judge was a mere formality, 
but Jane had to be released by a verdict before the new 
accusation could be brought forward. The present 
inquiry was concerned with the establishment of her 
innocence, not with the proofs of another person’s 
guilt. 

The judge gave it as his opinion that the present 
prisoner should never have been placed in the dock at 
all — that no proof as to her committal of this brutal 
murder of an inoffensive and beloved master had been 
brought. A few suspicious circumstances certainly 
went against her, but these had now been explained by 
the last witness. He sent the case to the jury with 
perfect confidence in their verdict ; there could be no 
doubt that that verdict would coincide with his own 
opinion. 

The jury, without leaving the court, arrived at their 


326 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

decision. The usual question was asked, and the fore- 
man answered, without a moment’s hesitation, “ Not 
guilty, my lord.” 

There was one long-drawn breath of relief, a faint 
cheer instantly suppressed. 

But Jane heard nothing more. The long tension of 
nerve and strength snapped at last. She fell forward 
like a log into the arms of the warder. Then she was 
carried out, amid a murmur of sympathy, to await the 
formality of release, while the detective laid before the 
court his evidence of the guilt of Jasper Standish. 

The fragments of paper were the I 0 IPs he had re- 
leased from old Benjy Myers. The Jew had confessed 
to the receipt of the money the night after the murder. 
Among his hoarded treasure still lay the marked pieces, 
of which one had been placed in Jane’s drawer at the 
Hermitage. 

But the story that set her free had no sequel of 
justice on the wrong-doer. He had to face a higher 
tribunal, to receive from a sterner Judge the sentence 
of his sin, 


CHAPTER XXXVI. 


A poor, broken-down wreck of womanhood came 
out of that ordeal. Her hair had turned snow-white 
in those days of agony and suspense. She had known 
how awful a thing it is to stand in the Shadow of 
Death ; how the brain reels, and the heart grows sick, 
and reason totters on its throne. She had faced the 
ordeal her child had faced, and gone down into depths 
as deep and well-nigh as hopeless. 

Yet the oath sworn over that child’s death-bed had 
been unavailing. Never once had she accused Jasper 
Standish, as she had meant to accuse him. Never 
once had they stood face to face, as she had deter- 
mined they should stand, while with relentless hand 
she pointed to his name in that blood-stained Testa- 
ment. 

In a totally different manner, and by totally unex- 
pected means, she had worked out this man’s awful 
fate. It seemed as if Heaven had chosen her as the 
instrument by which his crime should be detected and 
his sin against Hester avenged. 

Had he not directed his animosity against her help- 
lessness, she would only have been in the position to 
prove him guilty of her daughter’s betrayal, on moral 
grounds. The law would have given her no aid there. 
The law would have inflicted no penalty on the mur- 

327 


328 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

derer of innocence. But his instinctive dislike of her 
and her instinctive distrust of him had been the stand- 
point from which a mutual antagonist had battled for 
vengeance and for justice. 

Jane Grapnell came out of prison a free woman, a 
blameless woman, whose life’s purpose was achieved, 
but a woman of shattered nerves and broken spirit, 
whose feet were set on the path of sorrow, and by that 
path would tread their feeble way to the gates that 
close on life. No love, nor care, nor kindliness could 
make amends for those years of silent agony and un- 
flinching purpose. 

With the accomplishment of that purpose, the brave 
spirit seemed to break down at last. She had saved 
Nora from a worse fate than that of her own child, 
and Nora’s love and devotion repaid her with unfailing 
tenderness ; but the shadow had already fallen, and no 
hand could lift it. 

Not six months from the day when she had faced 
that dreaded sentence, when her life had hung on the 
verdict of men prejudiced and unfriendly, yet keenly 
critical of justice, Jane Grapnell was laid to rest in the 
little burial-ground of Rathfurley ; and those who had 
once blamed her for pride and reserve dropped kindly 
words -now over the heart they had done their best to 
wound. 

To hurt the living, and give useless pity to the dead, 
that is the way of life. 

Rathfurley does not stand alone ; it has its counter- 
part the world over, even as poor Jane has hers. 
***** 

As soon as he could persuade the girls to leave 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 329 

Ireland for change of scene, Sir Anthony took them 
abroad. 

They traveled slowly and enjoyably, taking their 
fill of novelty and beauty, and rejoicing in them with 
youth's recovered buoyancy — a chastened and tempered 
buoyancy, but still one that gave life a new zest, and 
could cast aside the shadows of sorrow for longer and 
longer periods. 

The wonder of cities that had made history for the 
world, of art treasures garnered through centuries of 
change, of towering mountains snow-crowned in lonely 
majesty, of magic lakes and somber palaces, of peopled 
yesterdays contrasted with the reality of modern to- 
days — all these appealed as nothing had ever appealed 
to girlish romance and intelligence. 

Their minds embraced the strangeness of unima- 
gined scenes, and reveled in idylls made eloquent by 
every peasant's face and every mountaineer’s call. It 
was all so new, so beautiful, so strange ; and the bruised 
and broken flowers in the garden of their hearts, raised 
drooping heads once more to the sunshine of hope, and 
the dew of blessed peace. 

Sir Anthony noted the change with serene content. 
He found Lyle a more sympathetic and intelligent 
companion, and Nora a sweeter and more unselfish 
one. They were both dear to him ; and his pity for 
the “ adopted daughter," as he called her, had long 
given place to a very tender affection. 

So the months drifted by, happily, uneventfully, and 
in grateful contrast to that awful year marked tragic 
from its first month. 

The spring found them still loitering in Venice, to 


330 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

which most mystic and alluring of cities they had paid 
a second visit. They gave less time to galleries and 
churches now, and loved better the lingering hours on 
the lagoons, the red glow of sunset on the Lido, the 
mystic moonlight when their gondola floated silently 
over the dark waters of the Grand Canal, and music 
broke across the air from some hidden garden or 
lighted balcony above the gray stone walls. To float 
through rose lights and shadows, and silver gleam of 
moonlit skies, was entrancing enough, even if the subtle 
poetry inseparable from such scenes and hours awoke 
in each heart that thrill of longing which is Nature's 
call to youth. 

Then would Lyle Orcheton’s thoughts turn to that 
day of days when she had said life was perfected in 
Love ; and then, too, would Nora shudder and grow 
pale at memory of that frenzied passion burned now to 
cold gray ashes ; ashamed and bitterly regretful, yet 
capable still of proving Love’s existence. 

They never spoke of their girlhood’s romance, never 
mentioned those false and disappointing fairy princes 
whose advent they had once believed would ennoble 
and glorify existence. Alas ! it is given to few fairy 
princes to do that. 

The glamour of girlhood and its dreams no longer 
obscured their eyes, but they would be none the worse 
women or wives for that forgone illusion. 

Sometimes Lyle watched the sky-line, and thought 
of far-off lands and dividing seas, and wondered if 
“ he ’’still remembered. Her heart had grown more 
merciful now to men’s faults and failings. She had 
read and thought, and in a measure lived, since those 


33i 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

days of indignant jealousy. She would have been able 
now to say those words for which he had once vainly 
pleaded, “I forgive you, Derrick.” 

She could also have added, “Because I understand.” 

But the sky-line came no nearer, and the far seas 
stretched their tossing width between her longing and 
his despair ; and she realized slowly, yet by sure de- 
grees, that love may outlive anger and outlast hope. 

“ There will never be any one else,” she told her- 
self, “ never ! I know that. I wish I had been a little 
kinder when I had the chance.” 


CHAPTER XXXVII. 


The spring was fading into summer warmth. A 
buzz of mosquitoes roused Sir Anthony from placid 
dreams of the stones of Venice and long blissful hours 
amidst the storied treasures of ancient palazzos. There 
was heat, there were odors ; above all, there were 
mosquitoes. It was time to issue marching orders. 

The girls pleaded for one week more — only one. 
They might never come to this enchanted city again, 
and its spell was strong upon them. He laughed, and 
grumbled, and agreed, on condition they should go 
straight to Switzerland. No more dallying. He knew 
Italy in summer-time. Burning skies, chill nights, 
drought, stench, flies, and other horrors. The ro- 
mance would turn to prose. Best leave it while, as 
yet, it was romance. 

The girls had an old and friendly and highly enter- 
taining gondolier entirely at their service. It was 
owing to his guidance and varied stories of informa- 
tion that Venice had ceased to be for them the Venice 
of the tourist, and the cockney, and the curious and 
restless American. 

One morning, the first of that promised week, Nora 
excused herself from going out with Lyle on the plea 
of letters to write. It was a plea that had come lately 
with amusing regularity, for the letters generally con- 
332 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 333 

sisted of one, and that one always bore the same name 
and address. 

It was plain to Lyle that Nora’s Irish friend had not 
forgotten or neglected her, but she made no remark 
on the subject. 

The gondola was waiting at the hotel steps ; the 
patient Tonio was waiting also. Lyle got in, and bade 
him take her through the Grand Canal and then out 
towards the islands. 

It was a lovely morning, balmy and full of the fra- 
grance of fruit and flowers from the heaped-up baskets 
of the girls on quay and bridge, and the flat-bottomed 
“barcas” going to and from the Lido. They shot 
past gondolas, barks, yachts, fishing boats, all the 
picturesque sea-life that floats from port and quay to 
the world beyond Venice and its half-forgotten glories. 
Then relaxing energy, Tonio contented himself with 
keeping the gondola to its slow and stately motion. 

Lyle in her white dress, leaning back among piles of 
orange and scarlet cushions, made a lovely picture in 
that lovely scene, and so apparently thought two men 
leaning over the rails of a large steam-yacht moored in 
the broad lagoon over which they were drifting. 

It was an exclamation from one of them in her own 
language that made Lyle look up. She saw the face 
of Derrick Mallory gazing down at her own. 

For a moment the shock and surprise were painful 
in their unexpectedness. She could only stare blindly, 
stupidly, finding neither words nor greeting. 

He recovered himself first, and, bending down, be- 
gan explanations. Tonio steadied the gondola, and 
waited. Lyle had to listen. She was too bewildered 


334 he Sin of Jasper Standish. 

to follow all he said — something about a recall to Ire- 
land, a friend and a steam-yacht, and Brindisi. 

No doubt it was all very conclusive, but it looked of 
small account beside his actual nearness, his presence 
when she had pictured him far away and dwelt on a 
lifelong separation. 

She summoned enough composure to answer a ques- 
tion or two. She gave the name of their hotel and the 
length of their stay. She bowed a gracious acknowl- 
edgment of introduction to the owner of the steam- 
yacht, a youthful millionaire, with a face somewhat 
blase , and indifferent to life’s good things, of which 
Fortune had given him more than a fair share. 

Then she signed to Tonio to proceed, and the gon- 
dola skimmed its way over the sunny water, and in her 
heart a little bird sang of hope once more. 

That one glimpse of him had been as food after long 
famine. That look with which his eyes had met and 
spoken to her own was only too eloquent of the unfor- 
gotten past. True, nothing was altered — or very little. 
Only herself and her narrow judgment, and her self- 
bound pride. But, in spite of that assurance, she felt 
that anything was preferable to that dead wall of 
silence which had meant a year of her life. 

Would he come to the hotel ? How would her father 
receive him ? She trembled as she thought of that 
last scene between them. His name had never been 
spoken since. 

But though she remembered all, and told herself she 
could not have acted otherwise, her heart thrilled with 
new warm life. If Fate had sent him back, if he still 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 335 

cared, if she forgave, surely they might conquer her 
father’s prejudice in time. 

She closed her eyes in a blissful dream. 

It was so good to feel happy again. So humbled 
and so content was she, that she could only breathe 
little thankful prayers, as one to whom a great and 
wonderful blessing has been sent. The whole world 
was changed. Air and space and sea and solitude held 
new delight. Her eyes swept the sky, and her parted 
lips drank in the buoyant air. The magic of this 
wonder-city was in her heart and soul for the first time. 
For Venice is a city of enchantment still, when youth 
and love and hopeful life float over its tideless 
waters. 

Lyle told Nora of that unexpected meeting, and 
Nora expressed surprise and “ pondered these things 
in her heart.” 

The surprise, however, led to eloquent conjectures, 
explanations, wonderment. What would he do ? Would 
he dare to call after that awful scene with Sir Anthony 
— after Lyle’s own treatment of him ? 

What Derrick dared and Derrick did was to appear 
at table d'hote that evening with his friend, and secure 
a seat almost opposite Lyle and her party. Sir Anthony 
looked all amazement, but could not avoid recognition 
of the young man’s courteous bow and apparently 
surprised greeting. When dinner was over, he followed 
them into the salon, and explained why and how he 
chanced to be in Venice, 

By that time Lyle was perfectly composed ; and Sir 
Anthony, who felt he owed the young man some amends 
for lending too ready an ear to Jasper Standish’s ma- 


336 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

lignant stories, was his old kind and cheery self. ' There 
was much to tell Derrick, too. The awful story of the 
Inspector’s crime ; the use that had been made of the 
secret passage to the Hermitage ; the history of poor 
Jane, and her patient pursuit of this man, and its 
results. 

Then Derrick spoke frankly, yet timidly, of a sudden 
change in his own fortune. A distant relative, who 
had only been known to the family as a miser and re- 
cluse, had died suddenly, and left his entire fortune to 
his nephew Derrick Mallory, on condition that he should 
release the Hermitage from its burden of debt and 
mortgage, and once more live there as its owner. 

“ So you see. Sir Anthony, I was bound to have a 
meeting with you soon or late,” he explained. “ Of 
course, I can’t turn you out. You have a lease of the 
place, and have gone to great expense putting it into 
repair. I must wait your own time and conditions. 
It’s a queer will, and made by a queer individual, who 
might, had he wished it, have saved the property long 
ago. However 

“ My dear sir,” exclaimed Sir Anthony eagerly, 
“ pray don’t consider me at all. To tell you the truth, 
I should not be sorry to be relieved of my tenancy. 
I’m not a superstitious man by any means, nor did I 
ever attribute any special meaning to such terms as 
‘ good and bad luck ; ’ but, upon my soul, since I’ve 
lived in Ireland I’ve become a convert to the theory. 
Anything like my experience since I took your house, 
or set foot in your country, could not be found outside 
the pages of a novel. I shan’t be sorry to get back to 
England again, I can tell you. So you and your law- 


337 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

yers may arrange as you please to release me, and the 
sooner red tape and parchment, and ‘ Victoria by the 
Grace of God ’ have settled the business, the more 
pleased I shall be. As for Lyle ” 

He looked round, but Lyle was not there. She had 
slipped from the room, and followed Nora and the 
blase young millionaire out into the balcony overlook- 
ing the Grand Canal. 

It was a favorite resort in the evenings. A crowd of 
gondolas floated to and fro, some hung with lanterns 
and filled with singers, who sang Italian melodies to 
lute, or guitar, or violin. Far and wide over the glid- 
ing waters lights streamed and twinkled. The gon- 
dolier’s calls, the laughter and chatter of voices of all 
nationalities made endless sound, as the weird “ water 
carriages ” passed to and fro. 

Above in the deep soft blue of the sky the moon 
sailed stately and serene, flooding all the scene with a 
new and magical beauty, relieving that touch of com- 
monplace in the gaudy-colored posts, and the shabby 
gondolas, and the unpicturesque dress of their owners 
and occupants. 

Lyle stood a little apart from Nora, and watched it 
all with that new sense of dreamy content that had 
been with her the whole day through. 

“ There is Tonio ! ” said Nora suddenly. “ Oh, Lyle, 
do let us go up and down the canal. It is such a per- 
fect night.” 

“ Do ! ” said a voice close to Lyle’s ear. 

She started slightly. 

“ Sir Anthony is in the reading-room,” the voice con- 
tinued, “ and we are friends again ; and I have much 
22 


338 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

to say, Lyle, and you — much to forgive. Is forgive- 
ness less hard ? ” 

“ I have often felt sorry I refused it,” she said. 

“ That is good to hear. If you only knew how that 
refusal hurt me ! ” 

She was silent — her eyes on the gliding water, 
her heart throbbing at the old tenderness in his 
voice. 

<tf Anywhere else,” he said presently, “ we might be 
conventional ; but here everything seems to slip by, 
even the past year’s pain. Lyle, we have met once 
more. The night holds magic, and hope is in my heart. 
I dreamed once of you here with me. Give me back 
my dream for one little hour.” 

Nora’s head was discreetly turned away. There were 
two gondolas at the steps. One had been engaged by 
the young owner of the steam-yacht ; in the other 
stood Tonio, balancing his long oar with picturesque 
patience. 

A touch on Lyle’s hand, and they were down the 
steps. 

She and he — together once again beneath the shining 
stars, breathless with a happy silence that neither dared 
to break. The pain of the old yesterdays was a forgot- 
ten thing. Who could be sad, or hard, or unforgiving 
in such a scene, in such an hour ! 

Tonio, discreet and comprehending, shot his gondola 
out of the beaten track into a space of soft, hushed 
darkness, to which the singing voices floated musically. 
Derrick drew a deep breath. His hand, warm, yet 
tremulous with its own audacity, touched that other 
hand lying idly on the cushioned seat. 


The Sin of Jasper Standish. 339 

“ I am forgiven ? ” he said gently. 

“ Yes,” she said, in a shaken voice. 

“ Forgotten ? ” 

“ No — oh, no ! ” The words came so quickly that he 
seemed to hear her heart’s throb in their sound. 

“ God be thanked for that ! ” he said reverently. 
“ If you only knew what I have suffered. Oh, heart, is 
hope impossible ? Must we again part ? You — dearest 
thing in life to me, will you make that life an endless 
joy or an endless regret ? ” 

There was silence, save for the melody of a laughing 
voice, the splash of the moonlit waters. 

“ Lyle,” he entreated, “ won’t you speak ? If you 
send me from you again ” 

“ Derrick,” she said suddenly, tftf will you swear you 
never loved — her ? ” 

“ Her ? That woman, you mean, for whose sake I 
lost you ? Never ! As there is a God above to hear 
me, Lyle — never ! Never for one single moment of my 
life ! ” 

“ And if ” 

“ If what, sweetheart ? ” 

The little hand trembled in his. He caught a 
sudden vision of flushing cheek, radiant eyes, a 
look — 

And patient Tonio found the gondola somewhat un- 
evenly balanced for a moment. 

***** 

At last the gossips of Rathfurley had enough to con- 
tent them ; for the Hermitage came back to its original 
owner, and the “ luck” changed for good and all ; and 


340 The Sin of Jasper Standish. 

the sweet young English lady became more and more 
Irish every day and every year. Had she not whispered 
in her lover's ear : “ Thy people shall be my people, 
and thy God my God ! * 


THE END* 


SEP 8 •' 
















































